Daddy's Precious Angel
by SLPikachu
Summary: What if it wasn't Ameila that made Sam stop hunting after Dean and Castiel was sent to Purgatory? What if it was because Sam received a phone call that would change his life he never thought was possible. (Kept the dog though)
1. Chapter 1

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 1

Sam drove down the highway in the Impala, thinking about where his brother and Castiel had gone if they were even still alive. He swore every time they were united again, sometime later, the other dies or disappears somewhere. He didn't know where to go or what to do, and the only companion Sam had now was the four-legged kind who didn't talk back. In English anyway.

Sam looked over at the Australian Shepherd lying beside him on the seat, panting. If Dean knew there was a dog in the car, Sam would defiantly be a dead man. Sam reached over and rubbed the dog's head. The dog moved into his hand, enjoying the affection. He then returned his hand back to the steering wheel, disappointing the dog who wanted more.

After a few minutes, Sam's cell phone rang. Sam pulled it out of his jacket pocket and looked at the screen. The number wasn't one he knew. Answering it, he put it to his ear, "hello?"

"Is this Mister Sam Winchester?" a woman's voice asked.

Sam was surprised to hear they knew his name. Not many people knew him. "This is him," he finally replied.

"This is Melody Addams from Daisy Hills Children's Clinic. I'm the head supervisor of this facility and I was calling you in regards to a new patient we just took in," the woman explained in a professional manner.

He stared ahead, clueless as to why someone would be calling from a children's hospital. "I don't have or know of any children, ma'am," he said.

"Well, on the birth certificate it has your name listed as the father," she told him as Sam's eyes widened.

"Wait. Are you saying I do have a kid?" he asked.

"Did you know a Tori Daniels?" Melody asked.

Sam thought about it, trying to remember that name. It did sound familiar. Then it hit him. During Dean's time "downstairs" Sam did meet a girl and had a few laughs and drinks. Then one thing led to another. It didn't last long because Sam was still looking for a way to save his brother so Sam had to break it off and never saw her again.

So, he was a father. Sam couldn't believe it. In fact, he had to pull off to the side of the road. Sam had a kid, _him_. He felt something warm and fuzzy inside of him as he dropped his right hand from the steering wheel, a big smile appearing on his face. If Dean was here, he'd probably be making fun of his brother for how he was looking but Sam didn't care. He was a father.

Melody snapped him out of his thoughts though. "The reason I am calling, Mister Winchester is that our facility is full right now and the only other option is to send her to St. Rodney's and that place is just awful. I don't even know how they still have a license. Would it be possibly for you to come take cust…?"

Sam didn't even let her finish. "Yes, of course I can come claim custody. Can I get an address?" Sam quickly started looking around the Impala for some kind of paper and a writing utensil. He looked in the glove compartment and found a notepad he and Dean used when they were posing as police or FBI, collecting information, as well as a pen. Sam jotted down the address before finishing up the conversation.

When he hung up, Sam lifted the dog's head in both hands. "I'm a dad, boy," he told the dog, excited. "I'm a dad."

The dog sat up and barked, happily, panting.

It wasn't for another few miles before it dawned on Sam why his daughter would be sent to a hospital. Was she sick? Would Sam even afford medical bills? As soon as possible, he had to find a real job and a place to live. Keeping their usual pact of giving up hunting when one of them died, Sam was going to have a normal life for sure. He did not want his child growing up to be a hunter.

It was a five hour drive but to Sam, it seemed longer. Sam could not wait to get there and meet his little girl. Finally, Sam pulled into the parking lot around four in the afternoon, parking under a tree so the dog could have some shade while waiting in the car. Sam rolled the windows down, halfway, too. It was a nice, cool day so he didn't feel bad about having his dog wait in the car for him. Giving the dog one last good-bye rub, he let him know that he would be back. The dog laid back down when Sam shut the car door and walked across the parking lot, heading inside.

Inside, Sam went up to the front desk to check in. Two young nurses were sitting there, one on the phone. The other greeted him with a smile and had him sign his name on the sign-in sheet that was laying there on the front desk and phoned Melody Addams that he was there.

Melody walked down the hall, a few minutes later and greeted Sam, politely. She was thin, late twenties and short blond hair, with black, rectangular glasses. She had Sam follow her back to where she had come from.

Sam walked with his hands in his pockets, "So why was my daughter admitted into a hospital for?" he asked as they walked down the hall.

She looked back at him. "Oh, this isn't a regular medical hospital. This is where children with special needs come to stay where they can get the attention they deserve."

At that point, Sam couldn't help but glance inside some of the rooms whose doors were open. There was a child in each one, occasionally two. Some were lying in beds. Others sat in wheelchairs, or walked with walkers. There was even a couple who couldn't even hold their heads up. He finally looked at Melody, "What about my daughter?"

"Nothing is wrong physically with Sophie, she can't talk in full sentences like other children her age," Melody explained. "If she wants juice, she'll say, 'want juice.' If she wants to play, she'll say, 'play.'"

"How old is she?" Sam asked.

"Four," she replied.

"What about her mother?"

Melody sighed, "She was found dead in her apartment of drug overdose while Sophie was found, playing on a moldy old mattress in front of a TV. With how Sophie is, that's pretty much what she likes to do, watch TV. If she can't, she screams her head off like someone is torturing her."

Sam looked down at his feet, his heart breaking at the thought of his little girl having to live in filth. He didn't know much about children, much less special needs children. He was starting to get cold feet about everything. Would he even be a good father? Could he raise someone like Sophie? "Is Sophie short for Sophia?" he finally asked.

She shook her head. "I was surprised to see Sophie was on the birth certificate," Melody shrugged. "Sophie Brook Winchester."

Sam was surprised to hear his daughter had his last name, wondering why Tori would give their daughter his last name, or how she even remembered it in the first place.

Melody eventually stopped at an opened door where a little girl with short, brown hair that looked as if it just had been cut, and green eyes like Sam's was sitting cross-legged on the bed, watching _Spongebob Squarepants_ on a TV.

Melody walked inside the room, "Sophie, there's someone here who wants to meet you," she told the little girl.

Sam stood there in the doorway in complete amazement. He had never seen such a beautiful sight in his whole life. When Sophie turned to look at him, he could see she looked completely like him with his father's nose. Sam walked over to the bed and sat down on the foot of it, smiling at his daughter. "Hi there," he said. "Do you know who I am?"

Sophie stared at him, confused.

"I'm your dad. I came to take you home with me so we can be a family."

She continued to stare at him.

Sam smiled, his dimples showing. "Not much of a talker, huh? That's okay. It can be scary meeting someone new. Do you like dogs? I have a dog waiting outside for us and he's very friendly, you'll like him and I'm sure he'll like you, too."

"Doggie?" she finally spoke.

"Uh huh," he nodded. "He doesn't have a name yet, either so you can name him if you like."

Sophie climbed off the bed and went over to a cardboard box of toys, digging out a dog you pull along behind you on a string. She then brought it back to Sam, holding it out to him. "Doggie," she repeated.

Sam was leaning his forearms on his knees. "Yeah, that's a dog. What sound does a dog make?"

Sophie pressed a button on the toy dog's back, making it bark. "Woof woof," she imitated the toy and giggled.

It made him smile to hear her laugh. "That's right, Sophie," Sam praised her.

Sophie stretched her right hand up, towards her father's face, touching his cheek. Sam did not flinch from it either. He gently took hold of her hand and rubbed it, affectionately with his thumb. The little girl dropped the toy at her feet and used that hand to touch his other cheek.

Sam smiled at her some more. "It's okay, you don't have to be scared with me," he assured her. "I will protect you and keep you safe."

"Safe," she repeated.

He nodded, "That's right. That's what being a daddy is about, keeping the little one safe. No one's gonna hurt you as long as I'm around."

Sophie shook her head, scared as she took her hands away, "No hurt."

"No, no one's gonna hurt you," Sam promised and pulled his daughter into his arms in a loving embrace and kissed the top of her head. "I love you, Sophie."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to those who followed, favored, and reviewed! I hope you continue to enjoy this story! :)**

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 2

Sam had to go through a lot of paperwork, and rules and regulations of caring for a child with special needs. He had to leave to go rent out a motel so he could have an address of residence to write on the paperwork, as well as look for a job. Normally job searches took at least a couple weeks but Sam got lucky and landed a job with Wal-Mart the same day he applied. He couldn't believe he was working at Wal-Mart but there was no complaining when you had a kid to take care of. Melody also referred him to a friend of hers who would be willing to baby-sit Sophie while he was working, who was familiar with special needs children.

After three days, Sam was finally able to bring Sophie home. He had also taken the Impala to a mechanic shop to have seatbelts installed so Sam could strap a carseat in the backseat for his daughter, and already shopped for clothes, diapers, and even some toys for Sophie, too. Sam learned all he could, researching online and in books about raising a daughter like Sophie. He learned from Melody, too about Sophie personally. Sophie wasn't toilet-trained since she couldn't understand that big girls used the toilet. Sophie could understand some things said to her, but it was very limited. Sam was glad she had understood that he was her father and was already calling him, Daddy.

Sophie had met her father's dog while she lived in the children's clinic. Melody gave permission as long as Sam had gotten a leash and a muzzle even though the dog wasn't vicious at all. She didn't want to take any chances. Sophie was calling the dog, Gary since she had just been watching an episode of _Spongebob Squarepants_ that was centered on the pet snail and the name stuck in her mind like a sore thumb when they met. Not only that, but ever since Gary likes to follow her around like a protector. The dog won't let her out of his sight and Sam had a heck of a time leaving each night where he had to physically pick Gary up and carry him out to the car, assuring the dog he didn't want to leave Sophie neither. Now that Sophie was home now, she and Gary were inseparable. Everywhere she went, Gary was sure to follow.

Sophie sat on the foot of the of the queen-sized bed, watching _The Backyardigans_ holding the dog pull toy Melody let her have since she liked it so much. Gary lay beside her as Sam sat with his back to the headboard, still doing more research. Sam wanted to make sure he was the father he could possibly be and that meant continuing to find out as much as possible. They were still involved with the children's clinic since it had a sister hospital the nurses looked with, providing medical and psychological treatment.

Sam was slowly getting into the swing of things. It was defiantly different from hunting that was for sure.

When _The Backyardigans_ were over, Sophie crawled over to her father, curious about what the strange device he had on his lap. She touched it with her pointer finger pushing on the back of it, "TV?" she asked.

"No, this isn't a TV. This is called a computer," Sam explained as simple as he could. "When I need to know something, it will tell me."

Sophie crawled closer to him to look at the screen. "Not TV?"

Sam shook his head and closed his laptop. "Would you like to do your cards?" he asked her.

Sophie lit up, "Cards! Cards."

Sam placed his laptop on the nightstand on the right side of the bed and grabbed a deck of flashcards from the nightstand on the other side, taking the cards from the box and shuffled them as Sophie was climbing all over his legs. Sam smiled and raised his knees up. Sophie stood up on the bed and stepped on his stomach to balance over his knees.

Sam laid the cards on the bed beside him and grabbed her bare feet, kissing them as Sophie laughed before he lifted her up and laid her back against his chest. Sophie still tried to break free, continuing to laugh as he held her and planted a series of kisses on her left cheek.

Eventually, Sam stopped and let her up to pick up the flashcards, holding up the first one. "What's this one?" he asked her.

Sophie sat on her legs, looking at the card that held a picture of a green frog hopping into the air. "Froggie," she replied.

"That's right, Sophie," he praised. "Good job." Sam placed the frog flashcard at the other end of the deck and drew another, holding up one of a fork you eat with. "What's this a picture of?"

Sophie stared at it for two minutes before she finally said that it was a fork and Sam moved on to the next one. This was the third time they went over the flashcards, but the first time Sam let her say them for herself. He learned even with special needs, kids could still learn, it just took longer so Sam started right away when Sophie was still young enough. They continued until they came to a flashcard with a picture of a mouse where Sophie started getting upset because she didn't know what it was and cried out loud.

Sam set the cards down beside him and sat up to pull Sophie into his arms. "Hey. Hey. It's okay, Sophie. Don't cry. It's okay if you don't know what something is, you're still learning." He rocked his daughter in his arms until Sophie pulled away from him and started screaming out loud, starting to have a complete meltdown. It had already happened once since Sam brought her home. He tried to remain calm, remembering what he had researched and tried to distract Sophie as best as he could. "Hey, look, Sophie. _Max and Ruby_ is on," he told her, nodding towards the TV as he tried to hold onto her shoulders.

Sophie kept right on crying, trying to wiggle away from her father's grasp. She tried pounding on his arms as tears were pouring down her face as Sam kept trying, ignoring the pain he was beginning to feel from her. She was defiantly a Winchester all right.

"Sophie, it's okay. Daddy's here. Everything's all right." Gary was sitting on the foot of the bed, watching Sophie as he whined. "Look, Gary is sad that you're upset." Nothing seemed to calm Sophie down so all Sam could do was hold her, firmly in his arms until the meltdown was over. She tried to push away from him but her father's grip was a lot stronger. It lasted for five minutes before Sophie's cries became sniffles and she stopped struggling. It hurt to have his daughter go through all that emotional meltdown and not know how to stop herself. Sam lifted his daughter onto his shoulder and held her to him, rubbing her back. "It's okay, Sophie," he repeated. "Daddy's here. I've got you. Everything's okay."

Sophie hugged her father's neck, hiding her face into the crook. After another five minutes, she had finally settled down. Sam decided that they were done with flashcards for now and suggested she take a bath and get ready for bed.

Carrying her into the small bathroom, he turned on the faucet, adjusting the water until it was the correct temperature, and plugged the drain so the bathtub filled up, and mixed some bubblebath liquid with the water before sitting on the toilet lid to undress Sophie. Sam tossed his daughters clothes onto the floor and threw the soiled diaper in the trash and cleaned her up before sticking Sophie in the water.

Kneeling beside the bathtub, Sam rolled up his sleeves. "Water feel okay, Sophie?" he asked her. Sophie was splashing her hands in the soapy water, making water splash up. She wasn't splashing that hard, so water didn't go out everywhere. "I will take that as a yes," Sam couldn't help smile as she played and grabbed the green pitcher from the corner of the bathtub, scooping water into it.

Covering Sophie's eyes, which did not sit too well with the little girl, Sam poured the water over her head to wet her hair. Sophie whined, trying to push his hand away.

"You don't want to get water in your eyes, do you?" he asked her, calmly. "It'll hurt."

"Hurt?" Sophie protested and questioned her father's reason for covering her eyes every time she got a bath.

Sam nodded, pushing open the children's shampoo bottlecap with his thumb, "There's soap mixed in and will make your eyes hurt if it gets in them. So that's why I have to cover your eyes. I'm not doing it to be mean, I promise."

Sophie looked up at her father and said, "Daddy protect."

He smiled again at her, "That's right, Sophie." He knew they would probably be having the same exact conversation the next day. Sam continued to be patient with his daughter though, thinking Dean probably went through some things Sam did that annoyed him. Not that Sophie was annoying him. She wasn't. Sophie was still learning.

Sam lathered Sophie's hair with the shampoo and rinsed his hands in the water then used the pitcher to rinse out her hair, keeping his left hand over her eyes again. Once her hair was washed, Sam wet a washcloth in the soapy water and washed the rest his daughter, making sure to get her face, neck, arms, legs, and the rest of her body.

"Tomorrow, I have to go to work. Okay, Sophie?" he explained to her as he washed her arms. "But Miss Mabel is gonna come over and play with you."

Sophie looked up, a terrified look on her face. "No go, Daddy."

"I have to, Sophie. I have to work so I can buy food and things we need. But when you wake up from your nap, I should be home."

Sophie shook her head, quickly over and over, "No go. No go. No go!"

Sam could tell there was another meltdown starting. He tried to keep her calm as possible. "It's just for a few hours. I met Miss Mabel and she is very nice and I bet she'll watch TV with you and play with you, just like I do. Okay?"

Sophie grabbed onto his right wrist, gripping it as hard as she could. "No go. Stay with Sophie. Daddy stay."

Sam held the washcloth against her shoulder, unable to move it. His heart was breaking as his daughter pleaded for him not to leave her. "Listen, Sophie. I'm not going anywhere right now. Okay?"

Sophie stared up at him, "Daddy no go?" she asked.

"Not tonight. I do love you very much but I have to go to work tomorrow." Sam finished bathing his daughter before letting the water out and lifted Sophie from the bathtub. Quickly grabbing a towel from the bathroom counter, he wrapped it around her and carried Sophie out of the bathroom and over to the bed, sitting on the edge.

Sam set her down on her feet, in front of him and started to dry Sophie off. Once she was dry, he laid her down, beside him and grabbed a diaper from the box on the floor. After putting the diaper on, Sam stood up and went over to the dresser the TV was sitting on, grabbing Sophie's pink, long-sleeved _Spongebob Squarepants _pajamas before bringing them back over to the bed. He sat back down and proceeded to dress her, also grabbing a pair of socks afterwards for her, as well and brushed out her hair.

"Hungry?" he asked once Sophie was all ready for bed.

Sophie nodded, happily as if that was the best idea in the world. Sam guessed Sophie inherited her uncle's appetite since she was always hungry.

"How about some mac and cheese? Sound good?"

Sophie stood up on the bed and started jumping as she recited mac and cheese, over and over again. Sam headed into the small kitchenette and started preparing the macaroni and cheese, washing his hands and pulling everything out to make it as Sophie became interested in _Go Deigo, Go!_,on the TV. Sophie sat in the middle of the bed as Gary leaped up and curled himself around the little girl, protectively.

When the macaroni and cheese was done, Sam chopped up a couple hotdogs and mixed it in, letting it cook for a little bit longer before pouring some into a blue plastic bowl that had a built in straw and grabbed a plastic spoon from the silverware drawer. He learned the hard way to not let Sophie use a regular spoon because Sophie bites down on the spoon when she eats.

Sam took the bowl over to the bed, blowing on it to cool it down and sat down next to his daughter, making Gary move. "Dinner's ready, Sophie," he told her, trying to get her attention away from the TV. Sophie kept on watching. Sam gently patted her left leg until she looked at him. "Time to eat, okay." He then led her over to the table and set the food on the table as she climbed up, onto one of the chairs.

She used her fingers to pick out a hotdog chunk and put it in her mouth, chewing it first.

"Can you use your spoon, please?" Sam asked of her. "It's not finger food."

Sophie picked up her spoon and scooped it into the food as she started eating the right way. Sam walked over and turned off the TV, much to Sophie's protests.

"Watch that," she told her father, annoyed.

"TV's off for the night, Sophie. You've been watching it all day." Even though TV was all Sophie was used to, Sam didn't want his daughter continuing to always sit in front of the TV all the time. He knew it wouldn't be easy but Sam was going to break her of the habit.

"Watch TV," she continued to protest.

"Tomorrow you can watch TV again. Not tonight." He knew a meltdown would start up soon so as quickly as possible, he suggested, "When you finish eating, I can read you a story."

"Story?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah," Sam told her, "and you can pick the book."

Sophie grew excited and started eating again. Relief came over Sam with another meltdown avoided. Having one a day was too many in his book and he didn't want his daughter to have to go through that again. Sophie could barely hear a word anyone said once the meltdown was in place, and trying to distract her was like trying to trap a demon in a devil's trap.

Sam sure did miss his brother and wished Dean was there. Dean probably wouldn't have the patience to deal with a meltdown and make it worse for Sophie, possibly scaring the poor kid. But Sam knew he would love his niece every other time. Dean seemed great around kids and got along with them. Sam walked back over to the kitchen and finished off the leftover macaroni and cheese, sitting next to his daughter. He had to remind Sophie again to use her spoon.

"Is it good?" Sam asked her.

"Yum yum," Sophie replied, happily. Macaroni and cheese was her favorite food to eat so Sam made sure he had plenty on hand. Gary was lying under the table in front of Sophie's chair as Sophie sat on her legs. Sophie looked down at the dog. "Gary under table," she giggled to her father.

Sam looked underneath the table. "Gary likes you, huh?" he replied, picking his head back up.

She was grasping her spoon straight up, on the table. "Gary funny."

"Yeah, he sure is," Sam smiled as he ate. "Finish your dinner so we can read a story. Okay?"

Sophie started eating again. After dinner, Sam had her put her bowl and spoon in the sink and to pick out a book he bought for his daughter. Sophie picked out one of the _Spongebob Squarepants _books and snuggled on the bed with her father, listening as Sam read to her. Once Sam was done reading, he had her laid down and soon afterwards, she was out like a light. Sam shut off the lamps on each side of the bed, leaving the light on in the kitchen area, washing the dishes from that day before turning it off.

Sitting up in bed, Sam watched TV for a couple hours, keeping the volume low so it wouldn't disturb Sophie. Around nine o'clock, he turned it off and making sure the door was locked and the salt he had laid down was still intact, he lied back down and fell asleep, his arms around his little girl. Gary slept on the foot of the bed on Sophie's side.


	3. Chapter 3

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 3

Sophie woke up around six in the morning. She tried to turn on the TV herself but didn't know she was supposed to use the remote. When the TV turned on, it made a loud noise and showed nothing but black and white fuzz. It terrified Sophie, making her cry out, waking Sam and Gary.

Sam threw back the covers and quickly jumped out of bed, lifting Sophie into his arms and shut off the TV. He rubbed his daughter's back as she cried on his left shoulder. "Shh, shh. It's okay, Sophie. It was just the TV. It's not going to hurt you," Sam assured.

Sophie continued to cry on her father's shoulder, holding onto him, squeezing his shirt sleeves in her hands.

"That's why you don't turn the TV on, yourself. Let me do it, okay?"

After some time, Sophie calmed down where Sam could put her down and start getting her clothes out for the day. Sophie was unique to say the least. Though she did not mind with wearing pink or anything that was made for a girl, it could not have any lace, buttons, zippers, or anything like that. Pretty much, Sam was limited when he went shopping for her.

Sam opened his daughter's drawer of the dresser and pulled out a pair of grey sweatpants and a horizontal striped T-shirt. Before he dressed Sophie, Sam changed her diaper first. Once Sophie was dressed, he made her a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. While Sophie ate, Sam took a quick shower in the bathroom while Gary watched out for her.

Sam came out of the bathroom, dressed in a dark blue, collared shirt and tan slacks. He went over where the coffee maker was just about done preparing his morning coffee. Sam looked over at his daughter, catching her picking out the marshmallows with her hands and reminded her to use her spoon.

Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Sam took a drink and pulled out an English muffin from the bag, sitting on top of the fridge, thinking about his first day on the new job. He knew Wal-Mart wasn't going to get him far, especially when Sophie's medical expenses were going to start rolling in. This was just temporarily to start the two of them off. Sam didn't know where to go from there or what he should do. He thought about going back to school but wasn't sure if he could juggle school, work, and being a father. Plus, law school would take more than just a couple years and Sam knew he had to think of something, short-term.

He thought about enrolling in a community college or an online school but there was still a matter of what to do for a living at that moment. He and Sophie needed financial support and a job at Wal-Mart while living in a motel room wasn't going to cut it.

Thankfully, Mabel wasn't charging that much to baby-sit, and the only other bills were the rent and his phone. Sam wished he had someone to turn to but the only other person he knew who was still alive was Garth and how was he supposed to help? The guy was barely a hunter.

Sophie interrupted his thoughts, standing on her father's right side, holding up her bowl that just had a few pieces of the corn cereal part. "More," she said.

Sam looked down at his daughter, snapping out of his thoughts, quickly. "Can you say, please?"

"More, pwease."

He took the bowl from her, thanking her and got the cereal box down again from the top of the fridge, as well. "I'm only gonna give you a little bit. Okay?" Sam told her as he poured the cereal and returned it to its place. He then grabbed the milk from the bottom shelf of the fridge and poured it in with the cereal, taking the bowl back over to the table and returned the milk.

When Sophie finished her second bowl, Sam asked her if she wanted to help him feed Gary. Sophie grew excited, clapping her hands.

"Can you grab his food bowl, Sophie?" he asked her, setting his mug on the counter that separated the kitchen from the living area and squatted down to unfold the large dog food bag. Sophie went behind her father, over to the wall in front of the fridge where Gary's food and water dish were, picking up a green dog dish. She carried it, carefully in both hands over on the other side of Sam. Sam used a McDonalds' large soda cup to scoop up some of the dog food and while holding his hand under the bowl to help support the weight that was being added to the dish, poured it inside.

Gary sat there, watching as he wagged his tail. "Someone's hungry," Sam smiled. "Huh, Sophie?"

Sophie giggled at the dog.

"Okay, can you set it back next to Gary's water bowl?" he asked her, also reminding her to be careful. Sophie carried it back over and set it back down where she got it, trying to make sure it was in the exact same spot. "It's okay, Sophie. It doesn't need to be perfectly in the right spot."

Sophie hurried back to her father and threw herself against him as Gary ate his food. "Sophie do good?" she asked.

Sam sat there on his heels, his arms around his daughter's waist. "You did really good," he told her.

Sophie smiled at that which caught him off guard when she asked a very random question from out of the blue, "Where Mommy?"

The corners of Sam's mouth dropped from a smile into a frown almost instantly. He actually wondered if Sophie understood her mother was gone or not, and why she didn't show any signs of missing her mother, too.

Sam looked down with just his eyes, not sure how to answer that and looked back at his daughter's sweet face. "Sophie…" He took a deep breath, letting it out. "Mommy…she… What do you remember when you saw her last?" Sam decided to see what Sophie understood and go from there.

"Mommy sweeping," Sophie said. "Scary people come in. Take Sophie away. Daddy find Sophie."

It felt like his heart broke to hear his daughter think her mother was just sleeping and couldn't find it inside of him to tell her that her mother was dead. Sam had lost his innocence as a kid, but he wanted his own child to keep hers as long as possible even if it was just about life and death. So Sam just moved his arms up and held his daughter close to him, not saying a word. Not yet anyway.

A knock on the door interrupted the father/daughter hug. Sam stood up and went to the door, looking through the peephole first. Mabel was standing there, holding her purse and a reusable grocery bag.

Sam unlatched the chain from the top of the door and unlocked both locks, opening it. "'Morning, you're early," he greeted, smiling as he stepped aside and let Mabel in.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she replied, politely. "I wanted to make sure you were on time for your first day."

Sam closed the door behind her. "That's okay. We were about to take the dog out for a quick walk. You're welcome to join us."

Mabel was a short, pudgy woman in her forties. She had dark blond hair and blue-green eyes. She had red painted nails and wore a black fitted blouse and tight blue pants. "Why, sure," she replied, returning the smile. "It will give me the opportunity to get to know Sophie while you're still home."

"Great," said Sam. "It looks like he's done eating now." He grabbed Sophie's white tennis shoes from beside the door and set Sophie on the foot of the bed. "Can you say hi to Miss Mabel, Sophie?" he asked of his daughter while he untied the laces. Sophie looked up at the new person but did not say anything. "She's shy for like five minutes but if you keep talking to her in a kind voice, she'll open up to you. It didn't take long with opening up to me at all," Sam shrugged up to Mabel.

"I understand," she assured him. "Is there a park around? Maybe for lunch I can take Sophie to play on the playground," she said.

"Uh." Sam thought about what was around the motel. "I'm still learning what's around here. I'm not from around here."

"Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"

Sam pushed the left shoe onto Sophie's foot and tied the shoe laces. "I was born in Lawrence, Kansas but my dad moved my brother and me around a lot," he explained, not going into complete detail. "You know, finding jobs wherever." Sam repeated the process with the other shoe.

"Where are your dad and brother now?"

Sam sighed, remembering his father and brother gone. "My dad died about four or five years ago, and I just recently lost my brother and our friend in an accident."

Mabel nodded. "Car accident?"

He paused before he agreed, lying to her and continued putting Sophie's shoes on her feet.

"I am sorry to hear that," she told him.

"Thanks." Sam stood up and grabbed Sophie's white, hooded sweatshirt from the top of the dresser where his jacket was and bunched it up before pulling it over her head and had Sophie put her arms through the sleeves, pulling it down afterwards. Sam then grabbed his jacket and threw it on, grabbing his keys, the dog leash, and a couple plastic grocery bags from the small table by the door. "If you do leave to the park or something like that, bring the leash just in case but with Sophie around, Gary won't wander far from her. He stays close to where he can still see her. I swear he's like Lassie or something."

The three of them headed outside with Gary rushing out first to "go" on a nearby light post. When he finished, he hurried back over to stand next to Sophie.

"See what I mean?" Sam asked as he locked the door and started walking.

"Did you train him to do that?" Mabel asked.

He shrugged, "No, ever since they met, Gary found it was his duty to watch out for Sophie. I had just gotten him when I met her myself."

"Where was it you got Gary from?" she asked as they walked around the motel property.

Sophie was holding onto her father's right hand as he replied, "I had accidently hit him with my car and ran him up to the vet. No one was looking for him and no one knew who he belonged to, so I kept him. I had just lost my brother and it felt lonely, I guess. Plus I owed him that much to give him a home."

"Bet you never thought you'd get two roomies, huh?" she winked at him.

Sam let out a small laugh, looking away from her. He turned back to look at her. "No, I never would have expected it. I'm happy though."

"So what did you do before you came here?" Mabel continued, curiously. "I don't mean to pry."

"No, you're okay," Sam assured her. "I, uh…well, me and my brother traveled cross-country, on a roadtrip. Just me and him." He pointed over at the Impala, "That was his car, actually."

"Wow, that was his car? You never see those things anymore," Mabel looked over at it. "Chevy Impala?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah. It was his baby. No one messes with it, if he could help it. Dean would kill me if he knew a dog had been in it."

Mabel chuckled, "Not a dog person, I see."

Sam laughed, too. "No, not at all."

The adults were talking so much, they hadn't noticed Sophie walk away when she saw a ball across the street. If it weren't for Gary pulling her out of the way of a passing car, she could have been seriously hurt. Sam had caught it out of the corner of his eye just as Gary yanked Sophie back by her hood and sprinted over.

Sophie cried out when she fell back and hit her head on the ground but it wasn't that bad. Sam grabbed her up and hugged Sophie to him, tightly as his heart beat fast. It felt like it was beating in his ears. Even after fighting ghosts, demons, leviathans, and Lucifer himself, nothing has scared him more than seeing his daughter almost hit by a car.

Stepping onto the sidewalk, Sam kneeled down, sitting back on his heels to look Sophie over, making sure she wasn't hurt anywhere. Besides a bruise forming on the back of her head, the kid was perfectly fine. "Maybe I should take her to the hospital to see if she has any internal injuries," he suggested to Mabel who was standing beside him.

"That's a wise decision but I think Sophie's just terrified out of her mind," she told him.

Sam looked from the woman to his daughter, remembering Gary, turning to face the dog, hugging Gary to him and thanked him. Sam owed that dog big time, in fact on his break, Sam was going to pick out the best, while still the cheapest dog toy he could find.

They returned to the motel room where Sam turned on the TV for his daughter, hoping the cartoons would distract her attention so he could slip out for work, hoping Sophie wouldn't have a meltdown when she did realize he was gone. Sam went over a few things with Mabel about Sophie, and told her what Sophie could have for lunch and when it was time for her nap. Sam tried scheduling Sophie's nap where she would wake up when he came home from work. Hopefully it will work.

Once everything was said and Sam made sure Mabel had his cell phone number, he gave Sophie a kiss on the side of her head as she watched _Go Diego, Go!_ Backing out of the motel, carefully and quietly, Sam headed out to the Impala. At least Mabel was trained to handle meltdowns so he wasn't too worried but it was enough to hurt leaving his daughter for a whole workday.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it took so long for the update!**

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 4

Once Sam got to work and clocked in, he was put on the ten items or less checkout line, ringing up customers' purchases. Every chance he got, he would take his phone out and look at the screen in case he had a missed call or voicemail. So far, there hadn't been any. Sophie had been on his mind since he left the motel and Sam couldn't help but worry.

Sam was staring at his phone in such a deep thought he hadn't heard the next customer walk up and set the shopping basket on the counter. It was a mother and two little boys who looked to be twins around Sophie's age. Seeing his name on his name tag, the mother tried to get Sam's attention.

Sam looked up from his phone and quickly put it away once he realized it was a customer, apologizing to her and started ringing up everything. He smiled down at the boys, watching as they pretended to fight one another, remembering when he and Dean were kids until the mother told them to stop. Once the mother had paid, she grabbed her bags and ushered her boys towards the exit.

Sam watched them leave realizing Sophie wasn't going to have a sibling to play with like those boys or him and Dean. At least she had Gary, until Sophie made friends with other kids. Sam worried how she would interact with other kids, if they would accept her or not. Kids could be pretty mean and Sam didn't want his daughter to be bullied.

On his break, Sam called Mabel to check in and see how Sophie was doing. It had seemed his fear was correct. Even though Sophie had opened up to him, she just wouldn't open up to Mabel. Once she realized Sam was gone, Sophie went into complete meltdown and had hid under the bed and refused to come out. Gary went under there, too to be with her, and every time Mabel tried to reach under to try and get Sophie out, he would growl at the woman. So Sam went and explained his situation to his boss and headed straight back to the motel.

Sam parked as close as he could and hurried over to his motel room, unlocking the door. Mabel was sitting on the side of the bed, closest to the door but Sophie was nowhere in sight.

"Are they still under there?" Sam asked of her.

Mabel nodded.

Sam shut the door behind him and went over to drop onto his hands and knees, lifting up the bed skirt at the foot of the bed and looked underneath. Sophie was curled up into a ball, hiding her face in Gary's fur. Sam crawled around towards the head of the bed and inched under, over to his daughter, touching her head, affectionately.

"Sophie," he said, gently.

Sophie jumped, instantly and bumped her head on the bottom of the bed. She cried out in pain, holding where it hurt. Sam tried to calm her down and come over to him but Sophie continued to cry, growing louder. He reached in with both hands and pulled her out, telling Gary to move. Gary listened and let Sam take Sophie, scooting out from under the bed, as well.

Sam lifted his daughter up, into his arms, rubbing the back of her head where she had hit it, gently. "Shh, you're okay," he assured her in a soothing tone. Sophie cried on his shoulder. She was crying so hard she was basically gasping for breath. Sam tried to calm her down as best he could. It took five minutes before the little girl's cries reduced to quiet sniffles.

When Sam was sure Sophie was calm enough, he laid her down on the bed to change her before kneeling down, holding onto her hands on either side. "I have to go back to work, okay. I will be back later today."

Sophie looked like she was going to start crying again. "Daddy no go," she pleaded with her father.

"I have to, Sophie. I wish I could stay home with you but I can't," he told her. "I have to work so we can have a place to live and eat."

Sophie yanked her hands away from his and jumped to her feet before stomping her left foot. "Daddy no go! Daddy no go! DADDY NO GO!"

Sam took hold of her upper arms, "Sophie, please, that is enough. I will not be gone forever, I promise."

Mabel spoke up from the bed, "Kids in her condition, Sam does not understand time. They know what is happening now but that's about it. So Sophie doesn't understand that you will come back later," she explained.

Sam looked to Mabel as she spoke then back to his daughter. He wished his daughter did understand. Sam did not want her to feel like he was abandoning her.

Sophie was trying to struggle from his grasp. When Sam removed his hands from her arms, she ran over and pressed herself against the front door. "Daddy no go."

Sam dropped his head and sighed before standing up and looking over at Mabel on what he should do. She told him to keep talking with Sophie while staying positive. He stood up and walked over his daughter, kneeling in front of her again.

"Sam," Mabel said.

Sam looked back over his right shoulder at her, "Yeah?"

"Try kneeling beside her. Otherwise, you might intimidate her."

Sam moved over to crouch on Sophie's left side and faced the direction she was facing when Mabel added that in, too. "Sophie, I know it's scary for you when I have to leave but I don't have a choice to stay. I have to go. I will be back, though."

Sophie shook her head and continued to tell her father not to leave. Tears were pouring down both sides of her face as she stared up at him. Sam tried to pull Sophie towards him in one arm but she ducked away while continuing to block the door.

Sam tried to think of something to say to get through to her. "Hey, how about after work maybe we can go out for pizza."

"Pizza?" Sophie looked as if she didn't know what pizza was.

He caught her quizzical look. "Pizza is really good. It has cheese just like you love," he explained.

Her eyes grew wider when Sophie heard there was cheese. Sophie's favorite food was cheese. She could eat it in any form: shredded, stick, sandwich sliced. Sam knew she'd like pizza if she tried it. Sophie stood up from the door and bounced up and down, now chanting cheese.

"Later, we will go eat pizza, okay?" he told her. "When I get home."

"Daddy go?" she asked, stopping abruptly.

"I have to." Sam was hoping Sophie was feeling better about him having to leave. It wasn't that easy though. He pulled Sophie in to sit on his right thigh where he was still kneeled. "Everything we have, Sophie, food, this house, the TV. It takes money to keep. Without money we wouldn't have those things. Do you understand?"

Sophie stared at him. Sam wasn't sure if she did or not.

He continued anyway, "In order for me to have money for these things, I have to go to work."

"Daddy no go," she shook her head still. "No work."

Sam looked down at the floor, trying not to sigh again. He read children can pick up on their parents' emotions and he didn't want Sophie to think he was frustrated with her. "I love you, Sophie and I will always love you. I will never let anything bad happen, I promise. But I have to go to work."

Sophie stood up and hurried over to press herself against the door again. Obviously he wasn't getting through to her.

Sam finally stood up and placed his hands on his sides. "Sophie, I mean it. I have to go to work. I understand how scared you are of me leaving but you know from the hospital that I will always come back for you." His tone was firmer but he did not raise his voice, keeping it at a reasonable level.

Sophie hugged the door as she looked up her father. "No go. Daddy stay."

Sam hated it but he was going to have to get tough with his daughter and it was going to confuse her to no end but as time goes on, he will continue explaining and teaching her. He reached down and forcefully peeled Sophie off the door and placed her over on the bed in a sitting position. "Now, I have to go. Miss Mabel will make you your lunch and after lunch you will take your nap. When you wake up, I should be home again. Do you understand?" Sam was holding her down as she struggled against him. Sophie tried to break free to run back over to the door but her father refused to let go. "I mean it, Sophie," he told her.

Sophie was sliding, halfway off the bed now as her shirt rose up, exposing her torso. "No! No! No!" she cried out, loudly.

He hated having to put her through this entire emotional trauma but the time his boss gave him was almost up. Sam knew he was going to have to just leave if he was going to make it back in time to finish his shift. Sam looked over at Mabel, "Sorry to have to leave you with Sophie like this but I have to go."

Mabel nodded, "I understand. I've had children with very violent behaviors. I can handle Sophie."

Sam nodded and turned back to his now screaming child. "Sophie, I am going now but I will be back. I love you."

Sophie screamed at the top of her lungs. "NO!"

Sam stood up and hurried over to the door, opening it. When Sophie realized he wasn't holding her anymore, she stood up and ran for the door just as Sam closed it. She tried to reach up to open it. He quickly locked it. Sophie then proceeded by banging on the door with both fists, crying out for him.

It pained Sam to have his daughter go through that. Her cries tore at his heartstrings and made him want to cry. He wished he had his big brother there to turn to but knew even if Dean was there, he wouldn't know what to do. Dean would be raising his voice to Sophie and not realize that she did not know how to communicate or understand why her father had to leave in the first place.

Sam's head told him he should get moving but his feet refused to move. He did not want to leave his daughter while she was in that state but he did not have a choice. Finally, he decided to walk over to the Impala and return to work. But his mind did not leave his daughter.

For the rest of the work day, Sam continued to think about his little girl as he unloaded boxes in the backroom and restocked the selves inside the store. When he knew someone wasn't looking, he called Mabel to check in on how Sophie was doing. Sophie was back underneath the bed again, along with Gary. Mabel informed him also that Sophie had repeatedly hit and bit her in the arms, actually biting the skin at one point.

Sam rubbed at his eyes in one hand. Was this going to be an everyday routine? Sam couldn't just take time off, especially when he just started. He was going to have to do more research when he got home, that was for sure. Sam never came across anything on biting habits yet. He apologized and hung up so he could continue with his work.

When Sam was finally able to clock out for the day, he got his schedule from his boss and quickly went out to the Impala and drove back to the motel. When he opened the door, he saw that Sophie was asleep on top of the bed.

"How did you get her out?" he asked Mabel, tossing his keys on the dresser next to the TV and removed his jacket.

She shrugged, "I don't think even Sophie could ignore when she was hungry. She came out asking for food, about an hour after you called. Then I turned on cartoons for her and she just barely fell asleep fifteen minutes ago."

Sam smiled to himself, mentally thanking his brother for passing his appetite onto his niece. "Thanks for watching her. It wasn't easy, huh?" he said.

"Sam, I have babysat and taught lots of kids with different special needs, from Down Syndrome to Severe Autism. I've had aggressive behavior and calm behavior. I've even had a chair thrown at me but I always come back."

"How come?" he asked, curious.

Mabel stared back at him. "Would you give up on your daughter?" she asked of him.

Sam shook his head, "No, of course not. But she's my daughter."

"And all my students and kids I babysit for are basically all my sons and daughters. There's never been a child I have given up on." Mabel smiled and turned to leave. "I'll be back in the morning."

He returned the smile, "Thanks, Mabel."

"No problem," she replied, cheerfully.

"What should I do about the biting and hitting?" he quickly asked her before Mabel left.

"Keep firm like you were doing before. Hold her and tell Sophie that hitting or biting is not allowed. It's okay to be firm with her, Sam. Just because she's developing slower than other children her age, doesn't mean you need to take pity on her. Know Sophie's limitations and work with her from there," Mabel explained.

Sam nodded at the floor and looked over at his daughter's sleeping form. "I just want to be a good father to her," he said, quietly.

"I can see that, Sam, and I know you love her. The way you reacted this morning when Sophie was almost hit by that car, I saw that look in your eye all parents have when something bad happens to their child," she told him. "How about this, on your first day off, I will come in, no charge and I will help coach you on a few things."

Sam looked back at the woman, surprised. "Really? You would do that?" he asked.

She shrugged, "Only if you want me too."

"Yeah, of course. Thank you." Sam then walked her out and said good-bye. Once Mabel had gone home, Sam headed into the bathroom to change into pajama pants and a T-shirt before grabbing his computer from the nightstand and setting it up on the table, researching some more. It felt like old times, sitting at the table, researching. A couple times, Sam glanced up in front of him, expecting Dean to be sitting there, across from him. Dean wasn't there though and Sam wasn't researching for a hunt. He was learning how to be a father raising a special needs child.

After another hour went by, Sophie stirred, sitting up. When she saw her father sitting over at the table with his back to her, she immediately climbed off the bed and hurried over to him. She hugged him around the waist.

Sam was taken by surprise since he did not hear his daughter wake up. He rubbed her back, "Hey Sophie. Did you have a good nap?"

"Sophie missed Daddy. Daddy don't go," was all she said.

"I'm not going anywhere tonight but we do need to talk about what you did when Miss Mabel was here." He moved his computer away and lifted Sophie up, onto to the table, in front of him. "I heard you bit Miss Mabel. Did you?"

"Bit?" she repeated.

"Yes, bite. Biting is not good, Sophie. You do not bite people." Sam kept a stern voice but still did not raise it.

Sophie looked up at her father, scared. "Sophie bad?"

That made Sam's heart melt. He shook his head, "No, you're not bad but no biting anyone else again. Okay?"

Sophie nodded which surprised Sam. He never saw Sophie nod or shake her head, she usually verbalized a response.

"And I know you don't like it when I leave but you cannot throw a fit every time I do. You see I'm back, right?"

She burst out in excitement, "Daddy home! Daddy home!"

"That's right and I will always come home. However, if you keep fighting me or Miss Mabel on this, there will be no TV."

This time, Sophie looked alarmed. "No TV?" she asked.

Sam shook his head, "No TV. I understand how sad you get when I leave but I need you know that I am not leaving you for good. I will always come back. Okay?" He hated having to repeat himself over and over but knew he had to so it would sink in for her. "We're not going out for pizza tonight, like I said before."

"No pizza?" she asked, wanting to cry.

"No pizza," he told her. "I understand you didn't know any better but maybe not going out to eat will help you learn. And there will be no TV tonight."

Sophie folded her arms, tightly and glared at her father. "Daddy meanie," she stated.

"I am not trying to be mean. I am trying to help you."

Sophie kicked up her right foot and hit him in the torso. It hurt somewhat for Sam to rub at the affected area.

"Sophie Brook, do not kick me," he told her in a firmer tone while holding onto her ankle so Sophie kicked him with her other foot. Sam stood up, quick almost knocking the chair back and lifted her under her armpits, carrying Sophie over to the bed and sat her down. "No kicking Daddy," he said once more and returned back to the table, pulling his computer back to him.

Sophie slid off the bed and wandered back over to her father and leaned against the table, picking up a kicking frenzy at his ankle. Sam tried to ignore it as best as he could, trying not to give into the attention he knew she wanted. After a minute or two, the kicks started to hurt a little and Sam immediately turned in his seat. "I said no kicking, Sophie Brook," he scolded her.

Her father suddenly turning on her, surprised her so much, she jumped back and the waterworks were turned on.

Sam felt badly for scaring her but tried to refrain from scooping her up and comforting her. He didn't want Sophie expecting him to hold her every time, especially when she was being reprimanded. "I did not mean to scare you, Sophie but I did say no kicking and I mean that. No more kicking. Okay?"

Sophie turned away and stormed back to the bed, climbing over to where Gary was lying, stretched out on his right side. She laid over the dog which Sam was impressed Gary didn't mind, and hugged him to her.

Sam ran his hand he was leaning on, through his hair. After thinking for a moment, he stood up and headed over to the kitchen to start fixing dinner.


	5. Chapter 5

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 5

The next couple of days were the same as the first. By the third time, Sam stopped coming home on his break since it only made things worse. Mabel was qualified to handle everything and he was still learning. However, that may have been what ignited the fuse on the fifth morning when Sam was leaving for work.

After the three of them took Gary for a walk, which Sam thought would help in getting Sophie used to Mabel if she saw that her father was leaving her with someone he trusted, Sam kissed his daughter, good-bye. When Sophie realized her father was leaving yet again, a storm blew in, a hurricane rather. She threw her dog she was holding onto the ground. Since the motel was completely soft carpeting, there was enough cushioning to keep it from breaking.

Sophie screamed at the top of her lungs. Sam's boss was having him come in early, too so it was very early morning where the other tenants were probably still sleeping. Well, not anymore.

Sam tried to go but Sophie grabbed onto his pant legs, finding out just how much of a grip she really had. He squatted down to her level and tried to calm her down. Sophie had released her grip when he came down to her but did not let up. Instead, she started hitting her father in the chest. He grabbed a hold of her hands, telling her to stop but Sophie was gone.

She continued to scream for what seemed like forever. After fifteen minutes, there was a knock on the door. Mabel went to answer it. Sam groaned to himself when he heard it was the motel manager.

This was not the first complaint the manager had brought to Sam's attention and there was no excuses or pleading with him, this time. He told Sam they had to go, giving him two hours to pack up and turn in his keys before leaving.

Sam lifted his daughter into his arms and sat on the edge of the bed, hugging her to him. When he had gone and rented out this motel, it was the only one for miles. What was he supposed to do now? He could feel a tear escape his right eye as he held his little girl on his lap.

"It's okay, Sophie," he tried to assure her. "I'm not going to work today." Of course, Sophie didn't let up right away. It took ten minutes before her cries turned to sniffles.

Mabel had been quietly sitting on the small book case under the window by the front door. Once things had quieted down, she asked, "What did you mean you're not going into work today?"

Sam looked up at her with just his eyes, his head against Sophie's. "This is the only motel I could get. I'm gonna have to quit my job at Wal-Mart and look elsewhere."

Her mouth hung open in surprise and dread once she realized that Sam was leaving. "Sam…" she said in almost a whisper.

Sam was staring down at the floor. "I'm gonna have to leave the hospital, which sucks since they're in the middle of diagnosing exactly what Sophie may have. And even if I find another job, where am I going to get a babysitter to watch her while I'm working?" His grip tightened around his daughter and held her as tight as he could without hurting her as more tears appeared on his face.

Mabel looked away for a second, preparing herself for what she was about to say before looking back up at him. "Sam, I hate to say this especially when I know how much you love your daughter but… Sam, I think you need to surrender your parental rights to someplace where she will be taken care of, with the treatment she desperately needs."

Sam shot his head up when he heard Mabel tell him that. "Are you telling me to willingly give up my daughter?" he questioned her.

"It's the right thing to do, trust me," she replied. "You don't have a place to live. You have to quit your job. Sophie probably will have to go on medication. How will you afford that, plus living expenses? Sam, you will only be hurting your daughter more if you don't."

"Why are you saying this? Almost a week ago, you were completely for me taking care of her. Now you're against me?"

Mabel held onto the bridge of her nose, sniffing back some tears. She looked up at him again. "I'm not against you. I'm thinking what's best for Sophie. Trust me I've had this same exact conversation with parents before."

"And how many disagreed with you?"

She sighed, tirelessly, "Only one and two weeks later, the child had a seizure and died."

Sam looked down at his daughter, watching her lay against his left shoulder, watching what was on the TV.

"You see where I'm coming from, Sam?" she asked after a few minutes of silence. "I don't want that to happen to Sophie. I know you love her and sometimes, letting go the ones we love is the best option."

Sam thought when his brother and Castiel had disappeared, and how hurt he felt when he realized they weren't coming back. Sam still missed them, especially his brother. Now he had Sophie, the only family he had left on this earth. He just couldn't let her go. He just couldn't. But what if something did happen to her? Sam would feel guilty as hell, because it would be all his fault. And Sam never thought once of blaming all this on Sophie. Yeah, it was her meltdowns that got complaints but Sophie couldn't help it. She didn't know how to process her feelings.

What stumped Sam the most was why Sophie refused to warm up to Mabel at all when she had warmed up to him, so easily? Did Sophie feel some kind of father-daughter bond or something? Or was there something about Mabel that she could sense about her? Sam hadn't even thought of doing the whole hunter's routine of checking to see if Mabel was anything supernatural. Gary did growl at her, the first day and he normally didn't growl. However, Sam hadn't heard of the dog doing it again so maybe it was only one time.

Mabel snapped him out of his thoughts. "I know that place they were going to send her isn't the kindness place but Sophie will get the treatment she needs and will provide for her needs."

Sam looked back at her. "Not all of them. She won't have that need that only a parent can fill. Sophie won't get to run around and be a kid, she'll be lying around in a bed, watching TV all day, not getting any fresh air or exercise. She won't get any social interaction she should have, regularly," he shrugged at her.

"I know and that's the part that hurts through all this but right now, she has other needs that are more important."

"What's more important than family and love?" Sam was starting to lose it as he continued talking to Mabel.

"Nothing is more important than family and love but Sam, you need to do what's best," she tried to repeat the same thing, trying to plead with him.

"What's best is being there for her and I will not place her in a place where she will be a prisoner." Sam could feel his daughter starting to get scared and stopped himself before things escalated. He lifted her off his shoulder to look at her. "Sophie, look at me."

Sophie looked from the TV to her father after a couple tries.

"I need you to pack up your toys in their box, 'cause we're leaving. Okay? Me, you, and Gary," he told her, calmly and simple as he could.

Sophie continued to stare at him. "No work?" she asked.

"No work," he told her. "Not today."

Sophie slid off Sam's lap and went around the bed to start picking up her toys, one at a time and placed them in a cardboard box. Sam stood up and pulled out a couple duffel bags from under the bed, and went over to start emptying each drawer of his and Sophie's clothes into them.

When Mabel continued to try and persuade Sam, he told her to get out, not even looking at her. His trust for her had been broken and there was nothing more he wanted from Mabel. Once she was gone, Sam continued packing. When their stuff was packed, he loaded everything into the trunk of the Impala. Leaving the motel room keys with the manager, he then strapped Sophie into her carseat and slid into the front seat. Gary laid in the backseat, next to her, his nose and right paw hanging off the edge of the seat.

Sam stopped at Wal-Mart to let his boss know he was resigning before putting the town in his rear-view mirror. He could feel another tear fall, gently down the right side of his face as he drove onto the highway. He couldn't give up on his daughter. Never would he do that. Sam was a wise man. He knew he could get through this because he's been in tight spots before. He survived hell, and demons, and Lucifer himself. He could do this. The question was, how?

Sam was leaning his head against his left hand, his elbow on the door as he steered with his right hand. He had been driving for a couple hours before Sophie said, "hungry."

He looked up at the rear-view mirror at his daughter. "You're hungry, Sophie?"

"Hungry, hungry," she chanted, happily as she clapped her hands, together.

Sam reached into the diaper bag he had sitting next to him and dug out a Ziploc bag of Lucky Charms. While holding it at the top of the steering wheel, he opened it and passed it back to Sophie all while keeping an eye on the road ahead. "Don't spill, okay Sophie. We have to keep the 'pala clean for Uncle Dean." Sam had already told Sophie about her uncle, about who he was as a person. The good things one can say to a child, anyway. Nothing about how they used to hunt together. And to Sophie, the Impala was just "pala" since she couldn't say "impala" that well though most of the time Sam just called it, "the car" but Sophie liked calling it, pala. At least his parents came up with easy names for him and Dean that Sophie could say, easily.

Sophie took the bag of Lucky Charms from her father and dug inside for a marshmallow, putting it in her mouth. "Daddy," she said after a few bites.

Sam looked back into the rear-view mirror at her. "Yes, angel?" he responded.

"Where going?" Sophie asked.

"I don't know yet." Sam hadn't really thought everything through. He just packed up and left without much of a thought. What was he supposed to do? Where was he supposed to go?

Sam drove for hours through a wooded campground. He pulled off to the side when he came to a rest stop and parked.

"Where this?" Sophie asked, looking out her window.

"We're taking a potty break," he told her, opening his door and stepped out. He left his door open and opened Sophie's door as well.

Gary bounded from the Impala as soon as the door was open and went to take care of business as Sam unstrapped Sophie from her carseat, lifting her up, on his left side.

Sophie pointed at the toy army man in the door, "Toy stuck, Daddy."

Sam looked at what she was pointing at and memories of his childhood flashed through his mind of him and Dean playing around in the Impala and smiled at his daughter, "That's been stuck there since I was a kid."

"Why?" she asked when Sam shut it and carried her over to lay her on the front seat.

He shrugged, "I was playing with it and I jammed the toy where I couldn't get it out. Your Uncle Dean shoved some Legos in the air vents over there." Sam pointed over at the dash board.

Sophie looked where her father was pointing at as he pulled her sweat pants down to change her diaper. It was quite the mess since they had been riding in the car for a while. Once Sophie had a clean diaper on, Sam pulled her sweat pants back up and leaned forward on his forearms, planting a series of kisses on her right cheek. Sophie giggled at her father as she held her hands on his cheeks.

He pulled back and smiled at his daughter.

"Sophie love Daddy," she said to him.

"Daddy loves Sophie, too," he replied.

The small family camped there for the night. Sam made a peanut butter and banana sandwich for each of them. When he first made one for Sophie, she instantly liked it making Sam glad he had someone to share his love for the sandwich since Dean never liked it.

They ate at a picnic table near the Impala while Gary ate his food.

"Is it good?" Sam asked her when he noticed Sophie had peanut butter all around her mouth. He didn't think he put that much in the sandwich.

Sophie smiled up, showing chewed up bananas and bread mixed with peanut butter through her teeth.

"I'll take that as a yes then," he guessed, smiling as well.

After Sophie finished eating, Sam used a wet-one to wipe her face and hands, getting the peanut butter cleaned off. Sophie wanted to run around so Sam chased her around the rest stop as she screamed, happily. He jumped in front of her as Sophie ran and pulled her into a bear hug, kissing her right cheek. Sophie giggled again and pushed away from him to start running again.

Sam made sure she did not run into the road by hurrying over to block her path which Sophie ran in the other direction. She had found a stick on the ground that interested her and Sam suggested they'd throw it for Gary to fetch. He kneeled behind his daughter to help her throw it and watched as Gary ran to retrieve it.

"Say, Gary, drop," Sam told Sophie when Gary had brought it back.

"Gary, drop," Sophie repeated to the dog.

Gary dropped the stick on the ground and Sophie picked it up. Sam held her right hand in his and threw it again. The stick soared through the air as Gary ran after it.

Sophie laughed, having a good time and it made Sam smile too. In fact, he hadn't had this much fun in a long time. After hell, the leviathans, and losing Bobby, and now Dean and Castiel, he didn't think he would ever laugh again but his daughter changed all that.

As Sam watched her run after Gary and tackled the dog, hugging him around the neck, he felt his past get pushed back in his mind and all he could think of was his little girl and trying to give her the best life he could possibly give her.


	6. Chapter 6

**First off, I want to say I never thought this story would be this popular. I was not expecting this many favorites and followers, but thank you so much and keep'em coming! :) **

**Second, I have seen that some of you really want Dean's reaction to Sophie. Though, I wasn't sure if I was gonna include Dean in this story or not I have decided yes, he will be. Not for a while though. The majority of this story will be the year when he's in Purgatory but until then I will be building up to the point when Dean returns. **

**Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 6

The little family had made it to the place where Sam was born. Sam didn't know how he had gotten here or what made him stay but thought maybe he'll run into someone who was a friend of his father's and could help him out. Sam immediately checked into a motel once he found one and unpacked. While Sophie played with her toys on the floor, Sam jumped onto his laptop and began looking for another job and checked if there were any local listings of a special needs babysitter.

This time around, he was not so lucky in finding a job so fast and a few days had passed since they had moved in. Sam tried putting his resume in wherever he could. Not only that, but the credit cards that Dean had applied for were getting close to being maxed out. So Sam decided to head over to the DES office and try to get any kind of benefits while he continued seeking employment. Never in a million years would he have expected to be sitting there with others in his same boat, waiting to get some kind of assistance.

The place was packed with people waiting to be called. Some had been there since six o'clock that morning and now it was going on eleven. Sam had already been there for two hours already. Sophie sat between his feet, on the floor as she pushed her dog toy around, slowly.

Sam was checking his phone for messages as he leaned forward on his forearms, finding one from Mabel. He listened to it. "_Hello Sam, it's Mabel. I just wanted to check in, and see how you and Sophie were doing. Please don't push me out of your life for good. I still want to help. I'm sorry I upset you, I was just looking out for Sophie's best interest. If you want to keep her then I accept that. I feel it's best if Sophie goes to a care facility but that's just my opinion. She's not my daughter though, she's yours. Give me a call when you get a chance. Okay? I'm worried about you both."_

Sam deleted the message and decided to call Mabel back.

She picked up on the forth ring. "_This is Mabel_," she said on the other end.

"Hey Mabel, it's Sam Winchester," he told her, smiling a little as he touched the top of Sophie's head with his fingers.

Sophie looked up at her father, upside down and Sam smiled back at her before she returned her attention back to her dog. Gary was back in the motel room, himself since he couldn't come inside the building and Sam didn't know how long he would be, not wanting Gary to have to wait in the car for that long.

"_Sam, I am so glad you called_," Mabel told him, relief apparent in her voice. "_I was worried about you both. How are you? How's Sophie doing_?"

"We're both fine," said Sam. "Surprising, there's only been a few meltdowns the past week but we're hanging in there. I found a motel we could stay in until I could afford an apartment."

"_Have you found another job yet_?" she asked.

He let out a tired sigh, "Not yet. But I turned in plenty of applications so far. Hopefully I find something. I'm actually in Lawrence where I said I was born and been keeping a look out for someone who knew my mom or dad."

"_Well, that's good, I guess_," Mabel told him, cheerfully. "_Have you heard anything from the clinic yet about Sophie's diagnosis_?"

"Not yet. I don't know why it's taking so long. Does it usually take this long? I mean, all they did was evaluate her and ran brain tests. How long does it take to go over everything?"

"_They have to make sure they don't miss anything_," she explained. "_Diagnosing a child's disability is a very serious procedure and they can't mess it up, or it could be harmful for the child_. _Sometimes it can take up to two to three years before an official diagnosis could be found._"

Sam nodded, "Right, right. I understand. I did some of my own research myself and compared what I've seen in Sophie to what's online and if I would have to guess, I think Sophie might be on the Autism Spectrum but I'm no doctor so I can't know that for sure."

"_What makes you feel that way_?" she asked.

"We finally made it to Chuck E. Cheese the other night for dinner and Sophie did not want to interact with any of the other kids. She played on that playset that's all tubing and would go by without acknowledging someone. In fact, she didn't even want to play that long. About four or five minutes into it, Sophie came down and stuck to my side," he explained. "Another thing I've noticed that I learned about someone on the spectrum is, they will hear you but won't acknowledge you and Sophie will ignore me quite a lot. First I thought it was because she was in tuned with the TV or what she's doing but after I read that, it made a lot of sense."

"_That does sound like Autism. If it is Autism, you're one of the lucky ones kids like Sophie lets you touch or hold her. Most autistic kids don't like physical contact and will act like you're hurting them when you're really not trying to._"

"Yeah, I read that too," Sam agreed. "I've also found "day in the life of" videos on YouTube of parents who are raising special needs kids. The ones who act similar to Sophie is the main reason how I came up with the possibility of her being on the spectrum."

"_That's nice that you found that too_," Mabel said. "_It shows what certain behaviors are usual and maybe learn how to deal with it yourself_."

"Yeah, it has been pretty helpful. I can't seem to find anything on object attachments though," he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"My brother's things are still in the trunk of the car. Never had any reason to get rid of them, I guess," he shrugged. "When I was going through the trunk, looking for Gary's food bowl and his bag got knocked over when I moved it. Dean sometimes forgets to close it, and one of his shirts fell out. Sophie was standing there with me and pulled it down from where it was hanging and I'm not sure how it happened but suddenly she gained this attachment to it." Sam sat up, leaning back against the back of the hard chair he was sitting in while keeping his voice down for the other people waiting. "I don't know if it's the material of the shirt Sophie likes or what. Her and my brother has never met and she seems to really like it."

"_It could be something about your brother's scent she likes that relaxes or makes her happy. How often does she hold your brother's shirt?"_

Sam gave a small laugh. "If I let her, all the time but if we go anywhere I have her leave it at home. Mostly around the motel, she carries it like a security blanket or stuffed animal." He reached out and wrapped his arm around Sophie who had stood up to wander off, lifting her up and setting her on his lap. Sophie tried to reach down for her dog. When she realized she couldn't, she started crying in frustration. Sam understood from grasping her hand at the floor in front of him that she wanted it and switched his phone to his right ear to reach down with his left hand to pick the dog up and hand it to her.

"_Don't limit when she can hold the shirt_," Mabel told him in a serious tone. "_If it's giving her comfort and security then let her have it for however long she wants. Special needs kids can sometimes craze for familiarity. It may even help to separate from you when you have to go to work._"

Sam lowered his eye brows hearing that, confused. "Wouldn't something with my scent help more?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "But anything like a teddy bear or object they really like will do."

While Sam talked, he noticed a mother with a little girl a little older than Sophie was, watching him. He waved politely as Mabel explained. Finally, the mother told Sam that he should leave before Sophie latches out at her daughter.

Sam excused himself to Mabel before lowering the phone from his left ear where he had moved it back. "Pardon me but my daughter isn't going to latch out at your daughter. She won't talk to her, much less go near her," he explained as calm and polite as possible.

The mother continued to stare at him, giving him a hard glare. "I don't want my daughter catching her disease either so please remove her from the building."

He couldn't believe what this woman was saying. She didn't even know Sophie and she was acting like she had leprosy or something. "Your daughter's fine, I can assure you," Sam just smiled at her.

When the woman saw he wasn't going to leave, she stood up and snatched her child into her arms to move to the far end of the waiting room where she had to stand.

Sam just shook his head and returned to his phone call until Mabel said she had to go and the two of them wrapped up the conversation before hanging up. He put his phone away in his pocket and wrapped his arms around his daughter, his hands folded on her opposite hip, from him. Sam watched Sophie, who seemed intrigued by her right hand, for a minute before kissing the side of her head and rested his chin on top of her head.

After another two hours, Sam's stomach started rumbling. He was glad he had packed a bag of Lucky Charms for Sophie, sneaking a bite now and then but it wasn't satisfying his hunger. When he was finally called back, the process took another hour and Sophie started feeling antsy and did not want to sit still anymore. It got to where Sam had to wrap his arms around her and hold her down in his lap. That's didn't sit too well with her and Sophie's first public meltdown happened.

Sam tried his best to calm Sophie down but wasn't getting through to her. Sophie cried loudly as Sam lifted her off his lap and had her face him. "Sophie, please," he tried to reason with her, "Please settle down. Please, for Daddy? It's okay, everything's okay, I promise. I'm sorry I held you down like that." Out of the corner of his eye, Sam could tell the guy he was meeting with was feeling uncomfortable with Sophie's meltdown. To Sam, it seemed like the guy thought his daughter was something he and Dean used to hunt.

The guy tried to keep focus on his computer monitor, typing in what Sam had written on the application while Sam continued to calm Sophie down. Sam tried to use her dog to distract from her meltdown but Sophie grabbed it and threw it at the ground so he stood up and tried settling her down by walking around what little room he had among the small cubicle.

The meltdown lasted for the rest of the interview, where Sam and the guy had to speak over Sophie's cries. Her cries had died down but it wasn't quiet sniffles yet. Sam figured Sophie was just tired and was hoping she would fall asleep in the car on the way back to the motel.

Once the interview was over and Sam was able to be approved for insurance and food stamps, he hurried from the DES office and out to where he had parked the Impala. Thinking about what Mabel had said, he opened the trunk and pulled Dean's duffel bag from the very back and opened it with difficulty of using one hand and a crying child in his ear.

He couldn't believe a meltdown was lasting this long. By now, Sophie was usually down to sniffles but this was ridiculous. At least it wasn't full-blown, top of lungs meltdown but still. Sam also hoped that she wouldn't know the different if he grabbed the same color.

Pulling out one of Dean's black T-shirts, he tried to get her attention. "Hey Sophie, look. Uncle Dean's shirt you like," he told her. When Sophie wouldn't look at him, Sam tried reaching over to show her in front of her face.

It was a miracle. The moment Sophie saw her uncle's T-shirt, she lifted herself off her father's shoulder and grabbed it to her. Seriously, whatever Sophie liked about it, whether it was the material or her uncle's scent, it gave Sam relief.

He watched his daughter cuddle it to the side of her face, for a moment before closing the trunk and went over to strap her inside her carseat. On the way to the motel, sure enough, when Sam looked up at the rear-view mirror to check on Sophie, she was fast asleep. Sophie sat in her carseat, holding Dean's shirt and her thumb in her mouth like Linus from the old _Peanuts _comic strip, sleeping soundly. It was a surprise to find her sucking her thumb. She had never done that before. That he knew of, anyway.

Sam tried thinking it over in his head what it could be but nothing came to mind. He wore T-shirts to bed and Sophie never latched onto any of them. Was it really Dean's scent? Whatever it was, Sam was defiantly glad of it and finally just let it go, thankful there was something able to distract her from her meltdowns.


	7. Chapter 7

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 7

It was well into the night. Sophie was already sleeping soundly next to him, clutching her uncle's shirt to her. Sam sat up in bed, under the covers with his laptop in his lap. The only light in the room was coming from the computer screen. It had been a month since he had moved to Lawrence and he still had not found at least a part-time job and he was fifty bucks away from maxing out the last of the credit cards and his savings was just about tapped out.

Sam rubbed at his eyes with his fingers, trying to stay awake to finish an application that was literally taking an hour to fill out. Finally, he just decided to quit and start over in the morning. It was better to wait when he was wide awake then to try and finish it when he was tired.

Reaching up to turn on the bedside lamp, Sam closed his laptop and set it on the nightstand, throwing back the covers so he could stand. He then walked around the bed to the small kitchen area to pour himself a glass of water from a jug in the fridge. Sam leaned back with his left hand on the counter. When he finished the glass of water, Sam just left it in the sink and lied down in bed, turning off the light first and wrapped his arm, protectively around his daughter.

The next morning, Sophie being his usual alarm clock like every other morning, woke him up by jumping on her father. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy…" she kept saying over and over until Sam finally opened his eyes.

"Okay, okay," he said, sitting up halfway, leaning on his elbows. "I'm awake."

Sophie clapped her hands in excitement, "Daddy wake. Daddy wake," as she sat on his stomach.

Sam smiled at his little girl and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug. Sophie laughed as he held her, tight and then kissed her head. Gary walked over from the foot of the bed and swiped his front, right paw through the air, letting loose a small whine before lying down, panting. "Is that all you two care about is food?" Sam teased both Sophie and Gary.

Gary barked, while Sophie just giggled.

So Sam got out of bed and fed his daughter a bowl of Lucky Charms and Gary, his dog food before opening the front door to retrieve the morning paper. While he had his coffee and English muffin, Sam looked through the job listings, circling anything he could find.

He looked up to see Sophie picking out the marshmallows with her fingers. "Sophie, use your spoon," Sam reminded her for the umpteenth time.

"Spoon on floor," Sophie pointed down where she had dropped her spoon on the floor.

Sam sighed and went over to pick it up and took the spoon over to the sink to wash it, before handing it back to her. "Finish eating so we can get dressed. I have to look for a job again today, okay?" he told her as he sat back down.

"Ooooooooh-kaaaaaay," Sophie replied, smiling.

After breakfast, Sam got his daughter dressed, putting on cartoons for her while he took a shower and dressed himself in business attire. While he sat at the small table, Sam organized his resume copies and planned out his route before heading out the door.

Sam hit all the places that he had circled in the want ads, interviewing with five or six people, asking about his experiences and what he was capable of doing. He felt hopeful when his father's friend from the garage John used to work at was hiring but since Sam knew very little about cars, he did not land the job.

Sophie was well behaved through most of it which Sam was glad of, until around a quarter to noon when she started feeling hungry. Luckily it was in between interviews so Sam took her to Subway for lunch.

Once he ordered, the two of them sat down at a table to eat. Sam unwrapped Sophie's sandwich for her and cut it smaller as well, and opened her apple slices too. The milk stayed untouched until Sophie finished her food.

Sophie started taking apart one of the sandwich halves to eat the turkey and cheese by itself.

"Sophie, can't you eat the whole thing, please?" he asked of her.

She nodded and once the turkey and cheese were gone, Sophie started on the bread. Oh well, at least she was eating all of it. So Sam just left it at that. After lunch, Sam took care of the last two job openings. The first was a hotel cook but they wanted someone with culinary experience.

The last one was a job at a successful ranch ran by a husband and his wife. Sam knew nothing about horses but the ad said it was just cleaning out stalls and refilling them, how hard could it be? The ranch was on the outskirts of Lawrence. When he arrived, Sam pulled up beside a large house and stepped out, getting his daughter out who had fallen asleep.

Sam carried Sophie up to the front door and rang the doorbell. It was five minutes before a Polaris go-kart pulled up behind him. A well-built man with very short, blond hair, wearing a cowboy hat, a white T-shirt, and dark blue jeans stepped out.

"Can I help you, sir?" he called over to Sam.

Sam walked down the steps and over to shake his hand. "Hello, my name is Sam Winchester. I saw your ad in the paper and wanted to see if the position was still available."

"Know anything about horses?" the man asked.

"Well, no, not really but I do have experience with shovels," he smiled at him.

The man shrugged, "That's fine. Long as you can shovel horse shit, you are good to go. As far as I'm concerned you have the job, but you have to interview with my wife first. Follow me." He then walked passed Sam and into the house. "The name's Clint, by the way. Clint Hawthorn."

"Pleased to meet you, Mister Hawthorn," Sam nodded as he followed the man inside and down a hallway.

"Call me, Clint. I don't do that formal stuff," said Clint, waving him off. "Who's the little one?"

"This is Sophie," Sam smiled down at the sleeping little girl. "And don't worry, I will find a sitter soon so I can start working."

"Don't sweat it. Room and board is included in the job in case you need it, so the little tyke can run around the yard while you work."

Sam couldn't believe what he just heard. Could it really be possible to find a job and a place to live at the same time? "Wait, you have a room to rent too?" he asked.

"Guest house, actually," Clint explained. "Utilities are on us but you have to pay for your own TV, internet, and phone. Rent would be deducted from your paycheck every first of the month and we will pay you every Friday at 12.50 an hour. Sound good?"

Sam wanted to burst out but kept a professional manner. "Sounds great. So you don't mind kids at all?"

He shook his head, "My wife and I have three kids of our own. They're grown now but they visit when they can."

"What about dogs?" Sam asked. "I have a dog waiting for me back at the motel I'm staying in."

"Love'em, too. Just got ours fixed so there shouldn't be any pups," he laughed. Clint stopped at a door and knocked before opening it.

An average height woman, about Clint's age with brown hair tied back into a short ponytail was sitting at a desk. She looked up at the men.

"Dorothy, this is Sam Winchester," Clint introduced Sam to his wife. "He wants the ranch hand job.

The woman, Dorothy stood up and walked around to lean on the front of her desk, looking Sam over.

"No experience with horses but says he can shovel," Clint told her.

"Did you tell him it was a live-in position?" she asked.

He nodded, "Guy says he's been living over in a motel room."

Dorothy looked at Sam, "What kind of jobs have you done before?" she asked.

"I was working at a Wal-Mart until I had to resign," Sam explained in a professional manner.

"May I ask why you had to resign?"

"There were several complaints at the motel I was staying at about my daughter's frequent meltdowns and was asked to leave. The motel was the only one in town so I had to leave the town, thus making me resign," he said. "I am trying to find somewhere to raise my daughter and find a job where I can support her and myself."

Dorothy was nodding. She looked over at her husband for a moment and then looked back at Sam. "You don't find many single fathers around much, willing to take care of their children. I think that shows great strength of character. Welcome aboard, Sam." She smiled and held out her hand for him to shake.

Sam stifled much of his excitement and just smiled in return, returning the handshake. "Thank you so much. I promise you won't regret this," he told them.

"I'm sure we won't," said Clint. "You can move in today and start tomorrow morning at eight. How's that?"

"Great, I will be there, bright and early," said Sam.

Dorothy went over and grabbed the keys to the guest house, passing them to Sam while Clint had him fill out some paperwork.

"What's your little one's name?" she asked Sam.

"Sophie," Sam replied, writing.

"Such an adorable name for such an adorable little girl," she smiled, sweetly at the still sleeping little girl.

Sam smiled, thanking her. Once the paperwork was completed, Clint walked Sam out to the guest house to show him, and gave him a tour of the property.

"Ever ridden before?" he asked Sam as they neared the guest house.

"Uh, once. It wasn't that bad once I got the hang of it," Sam explained. "I was sore for about a week though."

"The little tyke ever been on a horse?"

"I don't think so, unless her mother took her which I doubt it. Last I heard about Sophie's mom, she was a drug addict and died of an overdose," Sam told him. "That was when they called me and told me I was a father."

"Who?" he asked.

"A hospital Sophie was staying in. The moment they called and told me, I raced as fast as the speed limit would allow and picked up my daughter and I've been working my butt off, ever since."

Clint shook his head, "I'm telling you, young folks today don't care for responsibility. It's great to hear, now and then there are some who will step up and be the mature person they are supposed to be."

"It hadn't been easy either, what with Sophie having special needs," Sam added.

Sam figured that had impressed Clint even more. "Boy, Sam. You're just racking up father of the year points, ain't ya?" He smiled at Sam who returned it.

"Thanks. Sophie's pretty much the only family I got left in this world."

Clint looked at him, sadly, "I'm sorry to hear that. Who knows, maybe Dorothy and I might become like grandparents to little Sophie. If you stay long enough, hint, hint." He then laughed out loud. "Just kidding, but who knows."

Sam kept dreading asking one particular question. He knew he had to ask though, or at least let them know. "Uh… Sophie has meltdowns, sometimes when she's upset or tired which can last up to fifteen minutes to an hour. She doesn't know how to process her feelings and…"

"You don't need to explain, Sam. We don't look down on anyone, no matter who it is. Your daughter will not ever be shamed and if she is, then they will be talked to, then dismissed if kept up."

Sam was starting to feel a great weight lifted off his shoulders.

Clint showed Sam the guest house which was a one bedroom, one story house with a kitchen, living room, and one full bathroom. Once they were done with the guest house, Clint showed Sam around the property and introduced him to what he would be cleaning up after before walking him back to the Impala.

"This is your car?" Clint asked when he saw it.

"Uh, yeah," Sam replied, strapping Sophie into her carseat. "It was my brother's before he died and I am taking care of it now."

"'67 Chevy Impala, right?"

Sam stood up, straight and closed Sophie's door and opened his. "Uh huh. It originally belonged to my dad until my brother turned eighteen."

Clint shrugged, his arms folded, "I'm more of a truck driver but I appreciate some of the old, classic cars."

"My brother loves cars, especially this one," Sam tapped the roof of the Impala, proudly. "He rebuilt this once, from the ground up. No one expected it either. The thing was completely totaled."

"Sounds like a talented brother you have there, sure can use a guy like that to fix my jeep," he told Sam.

"Yeah, he sure was." Sam stared at the ground, thinking about Dean, starting to miss him again.

Clint picked up on it. "Sorry for your lost, Sam. If there is anything, Dorothy and I can do, you just let us know. We don't want to be just landlords and employers. We want to be friends, too.

Sam nodded and told the older man he would be back before getting into the car and drove back to the motel, long enough to pick up their stuff and Gary, checking out of the motel before he left.

Sophie finally woke up while Sam was going over a new budget for himself at the kitchen table. She looked around the bedroom, not recognizing her new surroundings at all and started crying out for her father. Sam had left the bedroom door open so he heard her cries.

He hurried in and lifted his daughter up into his arms. "Shh, shh, it's okay, Sophie. Daddy's here. You're okay." Once Sophie was calm a little, he lifted her from his shoulder. "This is our new home. No more motel rooms, okay? And you can hang out with me while I'm working. I don't have to leave you because I work right next door. Does that make you happy?"

"Daddy no go?" she asked.

Sam shook his head, "Not for now. The people I work for are really nice, their names are Clint and Dorothy and they love kids. Do you think you could be nice to them, Sophie?"

Sophie stared at him and then laid her head back down. Since Sam had just changed her when he had laid her down, an hour ago, he carried her into the living room and turned on a _Nick Jr. _dvd on the TV and was about to start on dinner when Clint called him on his cell phone, to let him know he was invited to dinner. Sam accepted the invitation and Clint told him he would call when it was ready.

Ten minutes to six, Clint called back to let them know dinner was ready. Sam fed Gary his dinner before putting Sophie's shoes back on her feet, heading over to the main house. Sophie held onto her father's hand as Sam rang the doorbell. Clint answered, shortly after.

"Well, look who's awake," he smiled at Sophie.

Sophie hid behind her father's left leg, shyly. Sam urged her to say hello but she wouldn't do it.

"I don't get it," Sam shrugged as they walked through the living room and the family room before they reached the kitchen/dining room. The whole house was huge and the kitchen was the side of the motel room they were staying in. "Sophie automatically opened up to me but anyone else, she acts shy around."

"Kids are amazing that way," Clint shrugged in return. "I'm sure once she gets to know us, she'll open up more." He smiled down at the little girl and it was then, he noticed Sophie was holding onto her uncle's black shirt. "Is that a shirt?"

Sam looked down at his daughter. "Yeah, that was also my brother's. And another mystery I can't solve too. Sophie has never met my brother and yet she likes his shirts. It helps with the meltdowns though, so I'm not complaining."

"Hey, whatever helps, right?"

Sam agreed.

The four of them sat down to eat. Sam fixed Sophie's plate for her, cutting up her ham into small pieces. This was Sophie's first real meal so Sam wasn't sure how she would react to any of the dinner. To his surprise, though, Sophie liked everything, including the vegetables.

Clint asked most of the questions, but Dorothy asked a few, asking the usual get-to-know-you questions of where Sam was from, what he did. Sam told them the usual road trip story with his brother, leaving out the hunting parts. Somehow, John being a Marine came up, intriguing Clint.

"Marine, huh," he said.

"Yeah, my dad fought in the Vietnam war as a corporal," Sam explained.

"I was there, myself but not on the front lines," Clint told him. "I was a cook. Got up before everyone to make sure they all were fed. Don't really remember anyone though, but I remember talking to a real nice fellow by the name of John. Don't remember his last name."

"Maybe it was my dad," Sam shrugged. "His name was John. John Winchester."

Clint smiled, "Well, it is a small world. Who knows."

Sam smiled again, seeing Sophie in the corner of his eye, eating with her fingers yet again. He reached over and picked up her fork to hand it to her, "Please use your fork, Sophie. Okay?"

Sophie took her fork from him and used it for five minutes before sticking her finger inside her mashed potatoes.

Sam noticed, dropping his face into his right hand. "Sophie, we are not eating finger foods. Please stop playing with your food and eat it," he scolded his daughter.

Sophie removed her finger and placed it in her mouth to suck the potatoes off which Sam quickly apologized to the couple.

Clint and Dorothy just smiled and said it didn't bother them.

"I'm not going to encourage it, since it is impolite table manners," Sam said before turning back to Sophie. "Use your fork, not your finger. Understand?"

Sophie nodded, slowly at him.

"How old is Sophie?" Dorothy asked, curious.

"She's four," Sam told her. "But she can't learn as fast as other kids her age." He then explained everything he knew about Sophie, so far and about how they had found each other as dinner was finished up.

Sam joined Clint in the family room to watch some TV, talking mostly about guy stuff until around ten. Sophie had fallen asleep in her father's lap so Sam had to carry her back to the guest house. He was planning on giving Sophie a bath tonight but decided to postpone it until the next morning instead.

After laying his daughter down in bed, Sam changed into pajamas and lied down next to her. He looked up at the ceiling and smiled to himself. If he didn't know better, Sam swore he had finally found a home to raise his daughter.


	8. Chapter 8

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 8

Sam woke up the next morning to his daughter jumping on him again. Since it felt like the best day ever, he decided to actually cook, making eggs, bacon, and toast for him and Sophie. After breakfast, Sam gave Sophie a bath and got her dressed before he showered and got dressed himself.

Once the two of them were ready to tackle the day, the little family, including Gary headed out the door and met up with Clint at the stables.

"'Morning," the man greeted with a smile, "you sleep well?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah, better than I slept for a long time." Sophie held onto her father's jeans, holding her uncle's shirt. "So, where do I start?"

"We're taking three horses out to the pasture since it's a nice day out and could use some fresh air and exercise. Just shovel out the whole stall." Clint looked back on the other side of the large stables. "There's a pile where you can dump it and then I need you to lay down more bedding. There's a storage room inside," he pointed at the stables with his thumb, "where the bedding is kept. Once you finish those three, come find me. I need to head over the tack shop to pick up more hay and alfalfa. Got it? I didn't overload you too much, did I?"

Sam shook his head, "No, sir," he replied and summarized what Clint told him.

"Great. There's hay bales inside the stables Sophie can climb on while you work." Clint showed Sam what stalls to clean and led the three horses out, letting Sam know he would be out at the arena teaching riding lessons if he needed anything.

Sam thanked him and got right to work. Grabbing a shovel from its hook on the wall, by the large double, sliding doors, he got to work while Sophie climbed on the hay bales at the back of the stables. Gary sniffed around, taking in his new surroundings. It didn't mean he wasn't making sure Sophie was all right. Now and then, the dog would look over at what the little girl was doing, just as Sam was doing the same. The two of them made sure Sophie did not get hurt.

After ten minutes, Sophie wandered over to see what her father was doing, curious. "Doing?" she asked, trying to lift herself up to see into the large, plastic wheelbarrow.

Sam shoved the shovel into the manure and bedding and lifted it over to dump inside the wheelbarrow, "I'm cleaning this so the horse can have a clean place to sleep," he told her.

"Horse?" Sophie repeated.

He leaned the shovel against the wall of the stall and had Sophie around the wheelbarrow to lift her up and pointed inside the stall next to them. "See that big animal in there? That's called a horse."

Sophie looked through the metal bars at the black creature, still munching on its morning hay and alfalfa. "Horse," she said again. "Horse, horse, horse…"

Sam smiled at his daughter, "Yeah. Maybe Clint and Dorothy will let you ride on one. How does that sound?"

Sophie quickly shook her head, "No no."

He asked, "Why not? I'll be right there, holding you. I promise not to let go."

"No," she kept repeating.

"Can you at least try and if you don't like it, you can get right off. I'm sure Clint and Dorothy probably have a smaller horse you can ride."

Sophie didn't respond that time.

Sam set her down, telling her he had to get back to work. Sophie stood in the doorway to the stall, watching her father the whole time and followed him outside to dump the wheelbarrow where Clint said to, before heading back inside.

Leaving the wheelbarrow close by the next stall he was going to clean, Sam went over to the storage room and slid the door open. There was another wheelbarrow inside for fresh, clean bedding. Using another shovel that was also in there, Sam shoveled it into the wheelbarrow, three-fourths full and took it over to lay it inside the first stall.

The whole time, Sam worked, he couldn't help but let his mind wander back to he and Dean on hunts. The majority he thought about was the salt and burn ones, and started thinking about what Dean would say if he knew Sam was now shoveling horse manure instead of grave dirt. Dean would probably make some kind of crack about the manure part.

Sophie was playing on the bales again but when Sam headed out to dump the wheelbarrow again, she would quickly follow behind. After the last of the three stalls were filled with fresh, clean bedding, Sam made sure everything was where he had found it and washed his hands in the small restroom and changed his daughter while he was in there.

Heading out of the stables towards the pasture, Sam looked at his phone for the time. It had taken two hours to clean all three horse stalls. He couldn't believe it was only ten-fifteen in the morning.

Sophie ran around as they headed over there, chasing after Gary who wanted to play with the little girl. Gary would let her catch up to him before taking off again.

"Don't go too far, Sophie!" Sam called after her, carrying the diaper bag behind him, over his head.

When Sophie heard her father, she ran back to him and slipped her hand into his. Sam smiled down at her before lifting her up and placed Sophie on his shoulders. Sophie didn't like being that high off the ground like that and asked to be let down. Sam lifted her off and placed her back down on her feet.

When they reached the metal railing of the arena, Sam stopped and watched as two guys and a young woman all in their twenties were cantering around the inside. Sophie stood in front of his legs, holding onto the third from the bottom bar of the railing.

Clint was standing in the center of the arena, giving advice and directions when needed. "That's it, Tony. Keep it up," he called over to one of the boys that were riding a bay-colored horse at a canter. Clint looked over at the girl, who was riding a dark brown colored horse that was a little smaller than the boy's horse and had white around its ankles and on its forehead, "Don't let the horse get lazy. Show him who's in control. That's it."

Sam and Sophie both continued to watch until the three riders brought the horses to a slow pace then led their mounts over to the gate. Sam tried to offer to open it for them but one of the boys explained he was learning to open a gate while on horseback in case there wasn't anyone else around to do it for him.

Sam held onto Sophie to keep her from running in front of the horses as they headed out of the arena and over to the stables. Clint praised them as he was following behind to shut the gate.

"All done?" he asked Sam as he latched the gate shut.

"Uh, yeah," Sam replied.

"Great. I have one more lesson to give. I was thinking of turning those three out into the other pasture so I'm gonna have you start on their stalls, too if that's okay."

He shrugged with a smile, "That's what I am here for."

Clint slapped Sam on the back of the neck, proudly. "Great attitude, Sammy. I will come get ya when it's time to head out.

Sam agreed as they walked back to the stables. "Uh, one thing though," he said.

"What's that?" Clint asked.

"Only my brother was allowed to call me, Sammy. I don't really feel comfortable with anyone else calling me, Sammy," Sam explained to the man.

"Oh, sorry about that," Clint apologized, sincerely. "Sam it is."

"It used to be I didn't want him doing it, either but I eventually gave in and just kept it within the family."

Clint nodded in understanding and left it at that. Back inside the stables, Sam cleaned three more stalls while Clint gave his last lesson for the morning, taking another two hours. Once the stalls were clean, Clint showed Sam how to halter a horse and the two of them led the horses that the three riders were riding, back inside to their stalls.

Sam headed back to the guest house to fix lunch for him and Sophie. Sophie wanted a peanut butter and banana sandwich so he decided to make each of them one, splitting the last banana between the both of them.

"Do you like it here, Sophie?" Sam asked when they were sitting at the kitchen table.

Sophie took a couple bites of her sandwich before peeling it open and started licking the peanut butter.

"Really, Sophie?" he couldn't help smile when he saw the peanut butter on the end of her nose.

Sophie giggled and continued doing it.

"Okay, that's enough." Sam made her close her sandwich and eat it the right way, all the while wondering why Gary all of a sudden decided to sit beside Sophie's chair and watch her eat. Sam figured it was just the usual protectiveness Gary usually had with the little girl until he took another bite of his own sandwich and caught Sophie giving a peanut butter-covered banana slice to him. "Don't feed Gary your food, Sophie." That was the last thing, Sam needed, having Gary becoming a begging dog. "Here." He stood up and grabbed the box of dog treats from the kitchen counter and sat down again, taking out a dog treat and handed it to Sophie, "Give this to Gary instead."

Sophie took the treat and held it out to the dog, who gladly took it.

"Dogs don't eat people food," Sam explained to his daughter. "They eat dog food. Okay?"

"Okay," she replied.

When Gary returned to begging for food again, he gave the dog another treat, calling him over then told him to go lay down and quit begging for food. Gary took the treat over to where his food and water dish was and lied down to eat it.

After lunch, the family headed back outside to where the Impala was parked so he could grab Sophie's car seat and took it over to Clint and Dorothy's house, knocking on the front door. Dorothy let them in and led them into the kitchen where the two of them were finishing up their own lunch.

A black and white Border Collie had wandered up to Sophie, curious. Gary didn't like that and growled at it. Sam heard it and reached down to gently smack Gary in the side, "Hey," he scolded him. Gary stopped growling but watched as Sophie tried to pet the other dog.

"That's Missy," Dorothy smiled as the dog, Missy sniffed Sophie all over. "She's a very sweet dog."

"Did you hear that, Sophie?" Sam asked, kneeling down to her level.

Sophie just looked at her father.

"The dog's name is Missy."

Sophie shook her head, "Gary."

"Yes, that's our dog's name. This one is Missy," he explained to her.

She looked at her father, confused. "Gary," she repeated.

Sam touched Gary's head, gently," This is Gary," he told her and then touched Missy's head, gently, "And this is Missy."

Sophie pointed at Gary and said, Gary," and then pointed at Missy, "Missy?"

Sam smiled at her, "That's right."

"Gary, Missy. Gary, Missy. Gary, Missy…" Sophie repeated over and over, pointing at least dog.

Sam stood up again, "Good job, angel," he praised her, running his hand through her hair.

"I swear, she is just the cutest little thing I have ever seen," Dorothy told Sam.

"Thanks, not a lot of people have told us that. Most parents don't want Sophie around their children," Sam replied.

"She asked, "How come?"

Sam shrugged, "Once they hear or see how Sophie acts, they act like she has leprosy or something."

"People are ignorant bastards, is what it is," Clint stated, flat out before downing the rest of his Coke.

"Clint," Dorothy scolded her husband.

"Look, I understand parents' desire to protect their kids but treating a kid who can't defend themselves, harshly is the most ignorant thing someone can do and teaches their own kids to do the same. I swear I want to literally shake some sense into some of them, sometimes."

Sam didn't say anything but he liked Clint and Dorothy the more they talked.

"I understand that, honey," Dorothy told her husband but you have to be careful what you say around Sophie, she might repeat what you say." She looked over at Sam, "does she repeat what she hears?"

"I have heard her repeat things I've said," Sam replied. "She repeats things she hears off the TV, mostly." Sophie was now walking around her father as the adults talked, dragging her right arm along them, and not even stepping over his feet. She just walked across them. Sam finally looked down but didn't say anything.

"I have a couple hours before the afternoon lessons start if Sophie wants to stay. We don't have any toys but I can put cartoons on for her," Dorothy offered, sweetly.

"Uh, I don't know if it's everyone but the last time I left Sophie with someone other than myself, she had meltdowns every time. Maybe once Sophie gets to know you I will let her stay."

She nodded in understanding, "I understand."

Clint was placing his dishes in the sink before he turned around to face Sam, "Ready to get moving, Sam?" he asked, heading towards the door.

Sam nodded, once. "Whenever you are," he told him.

"You bet, let's go," he said and headed for the front door. "How about we grab some ice cream while we're out too?" and winked over Sophie.

"Sophie doesn't understand when someone winks at her," Sam told him.

"Does she know what ice cream is?" Clint asked as he grabbed some keys off the key rack by the front door and opened it before they headed outside.

"I have not given her ice cream yet so I don't know if she'll like it or not."

"Do you want her to have ice cream?"

Sam shrugged, "If she likes it, I won't deny her a treat every once in a while. I'm trying to watch her sweets intake."

"That's good. Sweets was a rare treat when our kids were growing up too," said Clint.

The three of them walked over to Clint's black, four-door pick-up truck, followed by both Gary and Missy. While Sam hooked Sophie's carseat in, Clint lifted the back end down and Missy jumped into the back.

"What's your dog's name again?" he asked Sam.

"Gary," Sam called back.

"Gary. Come, boy," Clint called Gary over who ran over and jumped into the back with Missy, closing it afterwards. He then walked around to the driver's side and got inside to start the engine. "You don't mind country, do you?" he asked Sam.

"No, not at all," Sam said, finishing up with the carseat before lifting Sophie into it and strapped her in.

"How about classic rock?"

"Not really but being in a car for six hours a day with my brother, I learned to tolerate it." Once Sophie was strapped in, Sam shut her door and got into the front seat and closed his, fastening his seatbelt. Clint had already fastened his, going through the pre-set buttons, stopping on a country station. He then set the truck into drive and drove from the property.

Sophie fell asleep halfway to the tack shop. Clint noticed in his rear-view mirror and nudged Sam with his elbow. Sam twisted in his seat and saw her sleeping with her thumb in her mouth and holding Dean's shirt to her.

"She looks just like ya," Clint commented, looking between Sophie and the road.

"I thought the same thing when I first saw her," Sam agreed. "Now, I can see a lot of my dad in her, her nose for sure."

"How long have you had her for?" he asked, curious.

"About almost two months now."

After a twenty minute drive, Clint pulled into the parking lot of a tack shop, backing up towards the high stacks of hay and alfalfa bales. He turned the car off and stepped out of the truck to walk towards the back end to lower it down. Both dogs jumped out. Gary sat down next to Sam when he had walked over, leaving his door open.

Clint talked with one of the men there, explaining how much he wanted before he and Sam started loading up the truck bed. Once the bed was fully loaded, Clint went inside to pay for the hay and alfalfa with Missy at his heels. Sam got back in the truck, leaving his door open still. He motioned for Gary to jump into the truck at his feet and looked back to check on Sophie who was still asleep. It was looking like there wouldn't be any ice cream, not that day, anyway. It was around her naptime anyway.

Watching his daughter sleep, he thought about his father and how she really did look like him. The same long ears, the same pointed nose, and she even had his chin. To Sam, it seemed like John should have been Sophie's father instead of being her grandfather. The only thing Sophie really had of Sam's was the color of her eyes. The shape of her eyes was from her grandfather though.

Sam sat there in thought, rubbing Gary on the back of the head until Clint came out again. He let Missy jump into the backseat next to Sophie and got in, himself. Since Sophie was still asleep, they just headed back to the ranch.


	9. Chapter 9

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 9

Over the next couple of months, Sam continued working at the ranch and getting to know Clint and Dorothy. For the first few weeks, Sophie stayed closed in around them, but as time went by, she started opening up to them. With patience, Sophie was now running up to both Clint and Dorothy, her arms out and excited to see them.

Sam continued to work with his daughter in the evenings and on days Clint gave him off, with the flash cards. Now, whenever Sam took her anywhere, Sophie would point and say what it was. She still wasn't speaking in complete sentences but it was progress and Sam couldn't be a more proud father. Sophie still had meltdowns but ever since she had started holding her uncle's shirts, the meltdowns don't last very long. Sam tried to keep the shirts in Dean's duffel bag when Sophie was holding a different one, that way his scent stayed, in case that what was keeping her calm. He still couldn't figure it out.

Though Clint tried, Sophie refused to ride a horse or at least sit on one. Sam even got on one to show her it wasn't so bad. When Clint tried to lift her up to sit her in front of her father, Sophie screamed bloody murder until Clint set her back down. They stopped that day, trying again some other time.

Sam learned more about the ranch life and even about horses, basically slowly becoming part of the family. So far, he met the youngest of Clint and Dorothy's three grown children, who was five years younger than he was. Her name was Ruth and Sam couldn't help stare when he first saw her. She was beautiful to him in every way and found himself trying to find every opportunity to talk to her.

Finally, one evening, when Sophie was warmed up to Clint and Dorothy enough, Ruth asked Sam out on a moonlight trail ride. Sam accepted the offer and followed her out to the stables after dinner, giving Sophie a hug and kiss. Sophie started to cry at first until Dorothy went over and lifted her up, in her arms to comfort her. Sophie waved to her father, holding Dean's shirt to her until Dorothy went back into the house and shut the door.

Sam hurried after Ruth who had gotten a head start. They walked out to the stables and Ruth grabbed her horse, a grey and white, spotted one and led her outside to hitch her to the post under one of the lights that lit up around the stables while Sam led a brown and white, smaller horse and hitched him next to Ruth's horse.

It had taken Sam a few times before he was able to saddle up a horse on his own but he did. Once the horses were all saddled up, Sam and Ruth mounted their horses and rode through the back of the ranch and rode across a field as they talked, now and then sharing a laugh or two. It didn't help Sam any when Ruth had to leave until June since she was just staying there for her spring break and was going to school in Tennessee. If things weren't even worse than that, the very next day while Sam was hosing down a black mare, Sophie was running around, playing with Gary and she suddenly collapsed on the ground.

Sam had heard Gary barking, continuously and not in the cheerful way he had been. He looked over where Gary was circling around Sophie, trying to nudge her up and then ran over to Sam to get him to follow. Sam knew instantly, something was wrong and ran over to his daughter, dropping the hose. He dropped to his knees and lifted Sophie into his arms, who had her eyes closed and wasn't responding.

"No. No. No. Sophie," Sam began to panic when Sophie wouldn't respond. Her body felt hot and was sweating from running around in the sun. "Help!" he yelled out over to the corral where Clint was finishing up the morning's lessons. "Clint! CLINT!" Sam tried over and over, running his throat hoarse.

After screaming for two minutes, Clint finally heard Sam yell for him and rushed over to see what had happened. He kneeled in front of Sam as he told him Sophie wasn't responding. Clint felt her forehead and said she was burning up. Calling the lesson short for the day, Clint hurried to the house to grab his keys while Sam rushed Sophie over to Clint's truck and jumped in the front seat, holding her on his lap. Clint jumped in the driver's seat not long after and quickly started the engine.

"What exactly happened, Sam? Did you see? 'Cause the doctor's gonna need to know, exactly," he told Sam as he drove a little over the speed limit.

Sam only could shrug, "Sophie was running around, playing with Gary and the next thing I know, she was faced-down in the dirt with Gary barking like crazy."

Clint stayed focused on the road ahead. "Has she been drinking water at all today?" he asked.

Sam thought about it. Even though winter was over and spring has begun, he never thought about having Sophie drink water while she's playing and started kicking himself for not thinking about something as obvious as making sure his child was well hydrated. "No, not at all," he finally replied.

"I'm no doctor but I bet that's what it is, she's dehydrated. We keep water in the small fridge in the stables, I don't know if I told you that or not but help yourself to however many you want, especially for Sophie." Clint was turning on the A/C as he switched back and forth from the road, trying to get cool air to blow on the little girl.

Sam looked down at his daughter. Why did he let this happen? Why didn't he make sure Sophie was drinking water? If anything were to happen, Sam would never forgive himself. Sophie's eyes were sunken a little. "How far are we from the hospital?" he asked Clint after a few minutes.

"About twenty minutes," he answered. "I'm trying to go as fast as I can. Of course there has to be traffic." Clint happened to glance at the young man from the corner of his eye and clamped his hand on the back of Sam's neck. "Hey, we'll get her there, okay? Sophie's gonna be fine, I promise."

"I should have made sure she was drinking water," said Sam, feeling close to tears by now.

"These things happen," Clint assured him. "This doesn't make you a bad father if that's what you're thinking. You saw it happen and you quickly respond, right?"

Sam nodded down at his daughter.

"That's what counts. Besides, Sophie's a strong tyke, she'll bounce back," Clint smiled at the road.

Sam forced a smile too, over at the older man. He was no Bobby but he sure was wise like Bobby used to be. Sophie started stirring, getting his attention again. "Sophie? Talk to me? Are you okay?"

Sophie suddenly felt a pain in her stomach and started crying. Normally when she cried there were always tears but to Sam's horror, her eyes were completely dry.

Sam tried to calm her down assuring her it would be okay while Clint looked around his truck to see if he had any water containers lying around. He normally kept a few. Reaching back, behind Sam's seat while still watching the road, Clint grabbed an _Arrowhead_ water bottle from the floor and passed it to Sam, telling him to try and make Sophie drink some.

"Don't let her drink too much at once or she'll throw it back up," he told him.

Sam nodded and lifted the clear, blue cap and moved it to her lips to have Sophie drink it. Sophie took it, wanting to drink all of it at once and cried some more when Sam took it away. Clint gave the okay when she could drink some more. Once Sam had taken it away for the third time, Sophie had vomited all over her and her father.

Clint grabbed the towel from the back seat that Missy lays on when she's back there and handed it to Sam, who thanked him and apologized. "Don't worry about it. It ain't the kid's fault."

Sam wiped up the vomit as best as he could before another round came and Sophie dropped her head against his chest, limply and cried out some more. He tried to comfort her and clean it up at the same time. There still weren't any tears in Sophie's eyes.

Clint pulled into the hospital parking lot, eventually and pulled up in front of the main entrance to let Sam out first. Sam opened his door and stepped out, carefully and shifted Sophie to his side who then laid her head on his right shoulder. Clint told him he was going to go park the truck and would meet them in there.

Sam hurried inside to the main desk and signed Sophie in. The nurse sitting down asked for Sophie's information while the other nurse that was standing, took her temperature, using an ear thermometer. Sophie didn't like having something stuck into her ear though so Sam had to hold her in place while they waited for it to beep.

When the thermometer beeped, the nurse removed it. "A hundred and four," she told the nurse sitting down as she walked back around.

The nurse sitting had stood up after a couple minutes and asked for Sophie's wrist, fastening a plastic, medical bracelet around it with her information and led Sam to a room. A doctor shortly came in when he had sat down in a plastic chair, holding Sophie on his right leg.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Stevens," the female doctor greeted Sam.

"Hi. I'm Sam, and this is Sophie," he replied, politely.

Dr. Stevens placed her clipboard down on the counter of the large hospital room and gave it a once over. "Hydration?" she asked.

Sam nodded at her. "She was running around, playing with our dog and the next thing I knew, Sophie had collapsed face-first into the dirt," he explained.

The doctor looked at Sophie and told Sam not to let her go to sleep. Sam then nudged Sophie off his shoulder and gently tapped the side of her face, trying to keep her conscious. Dr. Stevens walked over to where Sam was sitting and put the otoscope together and kneeled in front of them. Sam shifted Sophie around so she could look at Sophie's eyes, nose, and mouth who gave them a hard time too, especially when Dr. Stevens shined the light inside her eyes.

"She has to, Sophie," Sam told his daughter. "She has to look at your eyes."

Sophie cried and tried to hide her face into his chest. Sam lifted her up and held her head in place while Dr. Stevens held each of her eyes open, looking into them with the otoscope. When that was finally taken care of, she stood up and walked over to write on her chart. "We're going to run a blood test just to be sure, but I think it's safe to say that it is dehydration. Younger children are more prone to it since their bodies are so small and can lose fluids easier than we do as adults. That's why it's important kids drink a lot of water when they are playing," she explained to Sam who nodded in understanding. When she was finished writing, Dr. Stevens had Sam follow her to another room where they drew blood and ran a blood test.

Sam sat down in a chair and shifted Sophie on his lap where they were both comfortable and he could hold her firmly since he knew this would probably be another challenge. Dr. Stevens lifted up Sophie's shirt sleeve, folding it in and rubbed an alcohol wipe on her upper right arm.

Sophie had no clue what was going to happen but was still too weak to really put up much of a fight. Once she felt a poke and realized what the doctor was doing, Sophie cried out from the pain as Sam comforted her.

"Shh, shh. It's okay, Sophie. It'll be over soon, I promise," he assured her in a soft voice as he held her close.

Sophie tried to move her arm away until Sam held it in place, quickly and continued to talk to her softly. When Dr. Stevens had the amount of blood she needed, she taped a cotton ball over the puncture and ran the test. Once that was settled, they then took Sophie back into the first room and had Sam hold her in a cooling blanket for half an hour to bring her temperature down and gave her some Pedialyte to sip on.

Sam sat in there alone with just his daughter, holding her on his lap. "I'm not going to let this happen again. I promise, Sophie. I won't let you have to go through this anymore. I should have made sure you were drinking water. I am so sorry, Sophie. I swear I am so sorry." He could feel the tears fill his eyes, leak down one side. Sam reached over and picked up the cup of red liquid, putting it to her lips so she could drink some of it. Sophie sipped on it until he took it away again and set it back down on the table beside him, and held her head to him, looking to his left.

All that had happened with his daughter actually reminded him when John had rushed home from a hunt when Sam had gotten sick during the night when he six and John had called in to check in with Dean to see how they were doing. John had held him the exact same way Sam was holding Sophie, in a hospital room smaller than the one he was in now. Up to this point, Sam had wiped most of his childhood memories away, unintentionally but the more he was taking care of his own daughter, the more the memories came back. Sam had given his father a lot of crap for not being there but the truth was, there were times when John was and it made his heart feel heavier. Guess it took being a father himself to realize it.

A couple hours came and went before Sophie's temperature had gone down to a normal one and Sam was able to take her home. He carried Sophie out to meet up with Clint, who was waiting in the waiting room, reading a magazine.

Clint stood up when he saw them, tossing the magazine onto the table beside the chair he was sitting on. "How is she?" he asked, concerned for the little girl.

"She's just fine like you said she would be. It was dehydration," Sam told him. "They managed to get her temperature down though."

"He smiled, warmly at her. "That's good. Ready to go home?"

Sam nodded at him and followed him out to where he had parked the truck. Clint had gotten the truck cleaned while he waited for them, at a carwash place so there was no smell when they opened the doors and Sam placed Sophie in the back seat and fastened her seatbelt.

"I got Sophie some Gatorade for the next few hours to help keep her hydrated," he explained and shrugged. "I pretty much figured that's what was wrong."

Sam looked at him, switching from his window. "You didn't have to do that, I was gonna ask to stop somewhere to pick up something for her."

He just shrugged again, "I had nothing better to do and I care about the tyke too, you know." Clint grinned at him. "Almost like she's my own granddaughter or something."

Sam had to smile at that. "Thanks, Clint," he told the older man.

"Don't mention it, Sam," he replied as they drove back to the ranch.

Once they were home, Sam stepped out and got his daughter from the back seat as Dorothy hurried outside and over to them.

"How's Sophie doing?" she asked.

Sam shut both doors and turned around to face the woman. "She's fine, her temperature is the normal degree it should be," he told her.

Dorothy stood at Sam's right side and brushed her hand along Sophie's hair, "Poor little one," she said. Sophie had fallen asleep on the way home so she was still sleeping.

Gary came bounding up to Sam, circling around his feet, looking up at Sophie. The dog stopped and sat back on his haunches, whining sadly at her.

Sam reached down and rubbed his furry head, before standing back up. "Sophie's fine, boy. Don't worry," he assured the dog too.

Gary barked, happily when he heard that.

With Clint carrying the bottles of Gatorade, Sam carried his daughter over to the guest house to lay her down on the bed while Clint set the Gatorade in the fridge. This was actually Clint's first time since Sam moved in, inside the house. He had noticed the salt on all the window sills and at the base of the door.

"Why do you have salt everywhere?" he called to Sam, looking around at them.

Sam came from the bedroom into the kitchen. "No reason," he just shrugged it off like it wasn't worth talking about. Sam was hoping Clint would take the hint and move on and sure enough, he did.

"I will call you when dinner is ready. Go ahead and take the rest of the day off to take care of your daughter. Okay?"

Sam smiled at him, thanking Clint. When he was gone, Sam grabbed a glass of water from the fridge and turned on his laptop and TV. The salt had reminded him to check out any hunts that may be happening. Sam found a few possible hits and thought about checking them out until he remembered his parental duties and shrugged them off. They weren't his problems anymore.


	10. Chapter 10

**Happy Easter! I thought I would do an Easter-related chapter to celebrate the special occasion :)**

**I have been doing a lot of thinking about the direction of this story and what to do next. I'm thinking about fast-forwarding (while still giving highlights about Sophie) through the rest of the year and bring in Dean and possibly Castiel too. Just a head's up, I am also thinking about doing the episode where Henry comes in and show his reaction to his great-granddaughter especially since I made Sophie look like John for the most part. I am all about taking suggestions so let me know if there's something you would like to see, besides Dean's reaction, with Sophie. **

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 10

The night before Easter after Sam put Sophie to bed, he took out everything he had bought to make Sophie's Easter basket and laid it out on the coffee table and started putting it together while he watched TV in the living room. When the basket was filled, Sam centered it on the coffee table and started stuffing different colored plastic eggs with jelly beans and tiny chocolate eggs, now and then putting loose change in some of them.

Sam wanted to start a piggy bank for Sophie, every once in a while as praise for doing something good, like putting her toys away or helping him clean. Once the eggs were all filled, Sam hid them around the house where Sophie would be able to find them the next morning, before relaxing for an hour, having a beer and watched TV, his feet propped up on the coffee table, crossed over the other.

The next morning, he woke up to Gary wanting to go outside. Sam sat up, putting his bare feet on the floor as he pushed back the covers. Giving himself time to wake up, Sam stood up and wandered down the hall to the front door. He unlocked and opened it, letting Gary run outside. Sam stood there on the front porch as the sun was peeking over the horizon. Sam had forgotten the last time he had thought about Easter. It had to be at least at Stanford with Jessica but that wasn't really Easter stuff. He would just take Jessica out to eat and surprise her with a basket of flowers when they got home afterwards. Now here he was about to celebrate it with his four-year-old daughter.

Sam looked back to see Sophie coming down the hall from the bedroom as she rubbed at her left eye. He smiled and held his arms out to her. When Sophie was close enough, he scooped her up and placed her on his right side.

"Hey, good morning, sleepyhead. Did you sleep well?" he asked her, in a soft voice.

Sophie had laid her head on her father's right shoulder but didn't say anything.

Sam just smiled down at his daughter. "Happy Easter, my little angel," he told her. "Would you like to see what the Easter bunny left for you?"

"Eater bunny?" she asked, finally looking up at her father. Sam had explained the Easter bunny to her, the night before. It still took Sophie a while to fully understand things.

He nodded, "Yeah, the Easter bunny left you a basket of goodies and he hid eggs all over the house for you to find. Want to go see what he left you?"

Sophie smiled at that.

Sam headed back inside, closing the screen door and leaving the front door open and carried Sophie into the living room where he put her down on her feet. He led her over and sat on the edge of the couch where Sam pulled the basket closer to where Sophie was standing.

"Look at all the neat stuff the Easter bunny left for you, Sophie," he told the little girl, grabbing his digital camera he had left there the night before and turned it on. "Can you look at Daddy?"

Sophie looked back at her father and smiled when she saw the camera. Sam swore she was so photogenic when it came to having her picture taken and ever since he had bought his camera, Sam did not want to miss a moment of Sophie's life and had even gone out and had professional ones taken so his walls didn't look so plain and white. He snapped a couple pictures before Sophie turned back to her basket where she stared at the basket for a moment before pulling out a white and tan lamb from Kohl's.

"What is that?" Sam asked, happily.

Sophie held it in her hands as if she was trying to remember from her flash cards.

"What animal goes 'baa'?" he asked, trying to sound like a sheep.

"Sheep," Sophie looked up at her father, excited she knew it.

"That's right," Sam praised. "Do you like it?"

She smiled and hugged it to her.

"What else is in there?" he asked, reminding Sophie she still had other gifts. Sophie looked in the basket again and grabbed a DVD of _Alvin and the Chipmunks_, the live/animated movie.

"Movie," she said, holding it up and had Sam take it before taking another DVD out of the _Peanuts' It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! _special, along with the _Spongebob Squarepants _movie. "Spongebob!" Sophie recognized her favorite cartoon instantly.

"Yeah, that's the movie, Spongebob," he told her.

Sophie held it out to him, wanting Sam to put it on at that very moment. "Watch now," she stated.

"Can you say, please?" Sam asked her, taking the movie from her.

"Watch now, pwease."

Sam stood up and turned on the DVD player while ripping the plastic wrapping off of it so he could open it and take out the disc.

As Sam put in the movie, Sophie continued looking through her Easter basket. She found another deck of flashcards to help with her numbers and colors, and a few storybooks, including one that was from a father's point of view to their child. Sophie was more interested in the candy though.

"Hey," he said with a smile when he caught her trying to open a Cadbury chocolate egg. "You can have one piece of candy after breakfast, okay?"

"Candy, please," she told him.

"After we eat breakfast," Sam told her again.

"Candy now," Sophie glared up at her father, upset.

"And I said after breakfast." Sam tried to reach for the candy but Sophie held it away. He had to fight her for it, smashing the chocolate in the process. "Sophie, let go of the candy, please."

"No," she replied.

Sam sighed, quietly, regretting he had decided to include candy in her Easter basket. "Sophie Brook, I need for you to let go now," he said, calmly as he could without his frustrations getting the best of him and continued to wrestle her for the candy until he finally could grab it out of her reach. Sophie, upset she couldn't have it, hit him. Sam grabbed her hand she had used and very firmly told her, "You do not hit Daddy. Hitting is not allowed, got it?"

Sophie just gave her father a hard look and used her free hand to hit him again. Sam flipped off the TV with the remote, tossing it on the coffee table and lifted Sophie up to set her on the end of the couch for a time-out.

"You do not hit Daddy, Sophie," he repeated to her in a firm tone still. "I want you to sit here in time-out for hitting me." Sam then stood up and grabbed a timer from the end table beside the couch and winded it for four minutes. "When this beeps, you can get out of time-out. If you get out of time-out before it beeps, time-out starts over," he explained to her.

Sophie climbed off the couch before Sam even had put the timer back down on the table. Sam walked over and set her back on the couch and stood there, with his arms folded, watching her. Sophie then slid down the couch and proceeded to kick him in the legs.

Sam leaned over on his hands, on either side of her. "That is enough, Sophie. You are in time-out for hitting Daddy. Do you want to be in time-out for longer?"

"Daddy meanie," she told him.

"No, it's mean to hit Daddy," he said. "I said you can have a piece of candy after we eat breakfast not before." Sam stood up straight again and went over to start the timer over. "I'm starting time-out over. Until it beeps, you sit there, okay?"

There was a knock on the screen door. Sam set the timer back down and headed over to answer it, grabbing Sophie's Easter basket in the process and moved it out of her reach, on a shelf.

Clint waved through the screen, "Happy Easter, Sam."

Sam opened the screen door. "Happy Easter, Clint," he returned the greeting, cheerfully as Gary rushed in the door, done with his morning business.

"Easter bunny bring some good stuff?" Clint asked with a smile, his hands on his sides.

"Uh, yeah, sure did. I have to talk to him next year about leaving candy out. Sophie wanted to eat it before we even had breakfast," Sam told him.

Clint shrugged, "Oh, that's normal. That's why we ate before we got out the baskets. That way, the kids could start in on their candy."

Sam rubbed the back of his head, "Dean and I, when we were still getting baskets, went for them right as we woke up."

He nodded in understanding. "Our church is having an Easter service, and afterwards, there's an Easter egg hunt for the kids. You're both welcome to come."

"Thanks, but we have lunch plans with a friend of mine," Sam said. "Plus, I'm not a church-going kind of guy. I wouldn't really fit in there."

"You sure?" he asked.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Okay," Clint shrugged, "Dorothy's making Easter dinner tonight and a few friends are coming over. You're welcome to come if you want. One of them has a daughter Sophie's age."

"Sure, we'd love to come and it'll be good for Sophie to play with kids her age," Sam accepted the offer.

"Great, see you around four then," he nodded.

"We'll be there. Do you need me to bring anything?" asked Sam.

"Uh, no. Just yourselves," Clint said. "Oh, have Sophie bring her Easter basket for the big egg hunt we do in the yard after dinner."

Sam nodded his head, this time. "Okay, great. Will do."

"See'ya later," Clint turned to leave.

Sam went back inside the house and shut the screen door right as the timer beeped. He went over and squatted in front of the couch where Sophie was doing handstands against the back of it. "Sophie, are you ready to say you're sorry for hitting and kicking Daddy?"

Sophie flipped upright and started to climb on the back of the couch.

Sam pulled her back down and had Sophie face him. "Sophie, I need you to understand that hitting and kicking is not nice and you do not hit or kick. Okay?"

"No hit Daddy," Sophie repeated.

"That's right, no hitting Daddy," he said. "Can you say you're sorry?"

"Sophie sorry," she said and gave her father a hug around the neck.

Sam hugged her in return, "Thank you, my little angel." They let go of each other. "How about waffles for breakfast?"

Sophie lit up in excitement. "Waff-L's! Waff-L's!"

Sam smiled at his daughter's excitement. "We'll eat waffles while we watch Spongebob, then later for lunch, we're going to go meet a friend of mine, named Garth. He's really crazy but Garth is a nice guy. He won't hurt you. Okay?" he explained to her.

Sophie just stared at him.

Sam kissed her forehead and stood up to head into the kitchen and popped a few waffles into the toaster. While they ate, at the coffee table, Sam and Sophie watched _The Spongebob Squarepants Movie_. After the movie was over, Sam gave Sophie a bath. Once Sophie was clean, he let her play for five minutes while Sam got out Sophie's clothes for her.

Sam actually wasn't sure about this. Since today was Easter he was going to see if Sophie would wear a nice, pretty dress. Leaving everything on the bed, Sam grabbed a towel and lifted Sophie out of the bathtub and sat on the toilet lid to dry her off before carrying her over and laying her on the bed to put her diaper on first. He then lifted her onto her feet in front of him as Sam sat down. Picking up the dress beside him, Sam bunched it up and pulled it on over her head and helped put her arms through and pulled the dress down to her knees.

Sam thought of how beautiful his daughter looked in the dress. Not that Sophie never looked beautiful to him, she did. So far, all he had seen her in was sweats and a t-shirt. Sophie was standing there, looking like she was waiting for something. He smiled at her and lifted her up onto his right leg and placed her left foot on his other leg, unfolding a pair of pink socks, balling one of them up first to place on her foot, doing the same with the other sock.

When Sophie saw the dress shoes Sam had gotten her for Easter, she pushed them away and slid off her father's leg to fetch her tennis shoes.

Sam shook his head. "No, Sophie," he told her, "you don't wear tennis shoes with a dress."

Sophie looked down at herself and dropped her tennis shoes to walk over to her drawer, opening it. Looking inside, she pulled out a pair of her sweat pants and brought them over to where Sam was still sitting.

"No, Sophie. No tennis shoes and no sweats. Okay? Today is Easter, you're supposed to dress nice." Sam tried to explain to her.

Sophie shook her head and started trying to take the dress off. Sam did not understand, he bought a dress that was pretty much like a long t-shirt, what was wrong with it? When Sophie realized she couldn't, Sam could see a meltdown was about to start. He moved down to his knees, holding onto her upper arms to calm her down.

"Sophie, it's okay. It's just for one day. Tonight, when you go to bed you can take it off but for today, I want you to wear it. Okay?"

Tears were filling up in her eyes and tried to struggle out of her father's grasp. Sam tried the best he could to keep the meltdown from starting but it was no use, Sophie started crying out not hearing Sam at all. All Sam could do was, pull her in and hold her, firmly but too tight in his arms.

"Sophie, it's okay," he tried to assure her. "It's just a dress. Don't you want to look pretty for everyone?"

Sophie continued to cry out, struggling to break free from her father's arms. Her socked feet started pawing at the ground. Sam looked over and saw one of Dean's shirts Sophie had been sleeping with the night before, lying halfway on Sophie's Spongebob pillow and reached over to grab it and held the shirt to her. She took it and the crying started to cease and soon after a couple minutes, Sophie was calm again.

Sam tried to think of a way to fix this situation they were in. He didn't feel right giving in and letting Sophie wear sweatpants but he also wanted her to be comfortable. Then he thought about possibly letting Sophie wear shorts underneath her dress, figuring maybe Sophie was so used to wearing pants that it seemed confusing not to.

So Sam let Sophie go, to stand up and head over to the dresser. He grabbed a pair of blue and white, polyester shorts and took them back to the bed. Holding onto her father's left shoulder, Sam helped Sophie place each foot through and pulled them up, underneath the dress.

"There, much better?" Sam asked, hopeful it was.

Sophie looked down at herself but did not say a word.

Next, Sam tried the shoes again but Sophie still did not want to wear them. She wanted her tennis shoes. But he eventually got the nice, dress shoes on, promising after today she won't have to wear them again.

By eleven forty-five, Sam was finally able to get out the door and into the Impala after making sure Gary had enough water out on the porch. He met up with Garth outside a diner, who was leaning against his car.

Garth stood up and met Sam halfway. "Hey Sam, long time no see." He and Sam exchanged friendly handshakes while Sophie hid behind her father's leg, holding her uncle's shirt.

"Hey Garth," Sam returned the greeting.

"This must be little Sophie." Garth squatted down to the kid's level, smiling at her and tried to make her laugh, being his usual quirky self. Sam was surprised when Sophie laughed at him. In fact, throughout lunch, she laughed at pretty much everything Garth said or did even when he wasn't intending to. Most of the time, Sophie did not know what the men were talking about but just seeing them laugh, made her laugh too.

Sam was thankful for it because it meant there would be no meltdowns. Sophie lasted all the way through lunch and fell asleep in the car on the way home. When Sam had pulled up to the ranch and parked beside the guest house, he carried Sophie inside and laid her down on their bed.

After her nap, Sophie woke up and went in search of her father who suggested they hunt for the eggs the "Easter bunny" had hidden throughout the house. Sam emptied her basket, putting the candy away in a Ziploc bag and placing it in the kitchen, and followed her along, helping her a little as Sophie found the plastic eggs.

Each time Sophie found one, she would jump up and down like she had just won the lottery, a big smile on her face. Sam would smile too, and praise her each time. Once all the eggs were found, Sam helped Sophie empty all the eggs onto the coffee table, putting all the jelly beans and chocolate eggs into a glass jar, letting her have a few jelly beans and one chocolate egg now before screwing the lid on. Once all the candy was put away, the two of them lied on the couch and watched _It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! _until it was time to head over to Clint and Dorothy's house for dinner.

At Clint and Dorothy's house, Sophie was introduced to their friends' little girl. Both girls had brought their toys they had gotten for Easter but Sophie only played by herself. Sam kept looking over to see if his daughter had joined the other girl but sadly never did. Sophie was petting her lamb as she held it in her lap.

When dinner was ready, Sam went over and picked Sophie up, onto her feet and led her over to the table to sit beside him. Clint led the prayer as everyone but Sophie closed their eyes and bowed their heads. She did not understand what was going on or why no one was eating. After the prayer was finished, Sam made Sophie her plate first, giving her small portions since this was her first time eating ham and had to remind her to use her fork. Her lamb sat behind her on the chair, wrapped in her uncle's shirt.

Of course, things couldn't be any different. Since Sam was the new guy, he got asked most of the questions to which he had to lie or stretch the truth, but at least they were accepting of him and Sophie. Everyone stayed at the table and talked way after dinner was completed and Dorothy cleared away the dishes. Sam offered to help, and carried the dishes to the sink where they just left them until later.

The group went outside so the kids could hunt for colored eggs before eventually moving to the family room where they played a couple games. Sophie lied on her stomach, in her father's lap. When the first game started getting a little loud with laughing and calling out, she quickly covered her ears and started to cry again. Even though Sam had planned to stay until afterwards to help Dorothy clean up, it looked like he had no choice. Sophie was sensitive to loud noises so he had to leave.

Sam stood up, shifting his daughter to his side and grabbed her lamb and his brother's shirt. Dorothy walked him out as Sam thanked and waved good-bye to everyone. He thanked Dorothy when he walked outside, saying good night and happy Easter, and walked home as he comforted Sophie.

Gary greeted them on the edge of the porch, happy to see them. Sam stepped up the two steps and went inside, turning on the front hall light to guide him to their bedroom to get Sophie ready for bed. He placed her down on her feet and grabbed her pajamas from the dresser. After changing Sophie first, Sam sat down and helped put on her pajama shorts. Sophie was glad to have the dress off too but wanted to wear her uncle's shirt to bed, over her pajama shorts. Sam still wasn't sure what the problem was until he saw Dean's shirt on her and remembered the dress. The shirt was loose-fitting on Sophie, the dress wasn't and he figured Sophie preferred loose-fitting over tight-fitting.

Before Sam took her into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, he had to take a picture of Sophie in his brother's shirt. It looked too adorable not to take it. The neck of it hung off her left shoulder and the sleeves covered her entire arms while it went all the way down to just above her ankles. After her teeth was brushed and her face was washed, Sophie climbed into bed and Sam read her, her new book from a father's point of view until she fell asleep and Sam placed the book on the nightstand and turned off the lamp before falling asleep too.


	11. Chapter 11

**Yeah, pretty much instead of having each milestone be a separate chapter**** I summarized the rest of them into one chapter instead of different ones, on the count of I couldn't really think of anything. Hopefully it won't ruin the story though I might do flashbacks like they did in the show. Well, the time has come for Dean's return! **

**By the way, I want to say thank you to Samstruck for the idea for the opening to this chapter. Thank you! **

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 11

Sam sat at the kitchen table one afternoon, looking through old photos of him, Dean, his parents, and even some of Bobby, Ellen, and Jo they had took over the years. He couldn't believe he was the only one left, and now and then had to wipe away a tear. Sam stared at a picture of him, Dean, and John when he was fourteen. John stood in the center with his arms around his boys' shoulders, all three smiling.

Sam was so lost into the picture, he didn't hear Sophie come in, awake from her nap and jumped, slightly when she touched his left leg, making her jump back. Feeling guilty about scaring the little girl, Sam lifted Sophie up and set her on his right leg, holding her to him.

Curious, Sophie picked up a photo of Dean leaning against the driver's side of the Impala right after he had rebuilt it after the car crash. She stared at it, not saying a word.

"Do you know who that is?" Sam smiled down at his daughter.

Sophie did not look up from the photo.

Sam kissed the side of her head. "That's Uncle Dean," he told her and picked up another one of him and Dean sitting on Bobby's couch, getting ready to watch a movie when they had the very rare down time. "And this is Daddy and Uncle Dean."

Sophie was more interested in the photo she was already looking at. Sam tried to show her more pictures of the rest of the family but could not break Sophie's focus from the one of Dean. Sam couldn't understand it. First she attaches herself to Dean's shirts, now she grows interested in his photo? It was as if Sophie had a spiritual connection to her uncle or something. Sam wondered what would happen if Dean was to come back and meet Sophie. He had realized that whenever one of the brothers seems to die or disappear, they always came back. Was Dean going to come back?

When Sam had been able to afford the medical and therapy stuff the clinic from before said Sophie would need to help her grow and thrive in the world, he brought up the connection between her and his brother to the therapist working with Sophie. Sophie played with the bead maze on the floor of the office.

"Sophie has never met my brother but yet she loves his shirts and his picture," Sam was explaining to the therapist. "I had to buy a teddy bear picture frame so she could carry his picture around with her."

"How long ago did your brother pass away?" the therapist, Stephanie asked from her desk.

"Uh," Sam thought on it. "It was about two or three weeks before I first picked up Sophie from the clinic. Maybe five, six months ago."

"So you were still grieving over your brother's loss when you met your daughter," she said.

Sam nodded, "Yeah. It was the first time I was actually alone. My uncle had passed away several months before, none of our friends were alive either, and I didn't have my brother there with me." He shrugged.

"Sounds to me, Sophie picked up on your grieving."

"How could she do that?" he asked.

Stephanie only shrugged, "Usually, special needs kids lack empathy and don't have the capacity to read what others are feeling, but if Sophie latched onto your brother without meeting him, she had to have picked up on it." She watched Sophie as she pushed each wooden piece along the rail, off in her own world. "I know each child is different but a special needs child, who could read off something like grieving, doesn't make sense to me."

"I may have looked at photos of Dean, but I never held his shirts," Sam told her.

"No, that may be how Sophie deals with it," shrugged Stephanie.

"But should I be concerned?" he asked.

Stephanie shook her head. "Not a lot of kids like her find things that calms her so you should be proud your daughter have found hers."

Sam nodded, looking over at Sophie. Over the next several months, in the afternoons after Sophie's naps, Sam took her to the new clinic and worked with several people to help diagnosis Sophie's condition since Sam lost contact with the other one. Everyone there was nice but it took a while before Sophie came from behind her father's leg when it was her turn to be talked to.

By the end of the year, right before Christmas, they took Sam's guess and announced Sophie was on the autism spectrum. She still wasn't speaking in full sentences even as Sam and the specialists worked with her on building her speech up. She was learning different things though.

Sam was able to throw her a small birthday party, inviting Clint and Dorothy, along with Garth who called in now and then to say hello and ask how Sophie was doing. By now, they were the only ones besides Sam that Sophie was truly open to and didn't have a meltdown when Sam left her with them. Sam also saw Ruth again but with another guy she met and brought home from college. He was a little disappointed to say the least but decided to move on and focus on the only important girl in his life.

At Sophie's birthday party, Sam had to help Sophie blow out the candles after they sang _Happy Birthday_ to her and cheered for Sophie. Sam read Sophie the card first before she ripped the wrapping paper off each gift. With her birthday and Christmas, Sophie never really had a reaction of excitement or disappointment, but was happy when she saw Spongebob.

For Christmas, it was just Sam, Sophie, and even Garth came over to share in the celebration. Clint and Dorothy had to fly out to their oldest son and his family for Christmas while Sam and a couple other ranch hands watched the ranch for them. Like Easter, Sam woke up first to let Gary outside before Sophie woke up and carried her into the living room where he shook Garth awake, who was crashed out on the couch.

Garth bolted into a sitting position. "I'm awake! I'm awake!" he said, making Sophie giggle at him.

Sam placed her down on her feet and let her run over to the Christmas tree where there was a Spongebob ball sitting beside a red and white stocking. Most of the gifts under the tree were for Sophie, but Sam and Garth exchanged a couple between the two of them. The men were mostly interested in the little girl's happiness.

However, it wasn't long after Christmas, did Sam receive another gift he hadn't been expecting. He and Sophie were exiting the stables, laughing as Gary ran around them. Sam lifted Sophie into his arms as he walked towards their house and planted a series of kisses on her cheek, ignoring the fact that Gary was barking up a storm at someone. It wasn't till Sam heard his name called did Sam look up and froze, standing there rooted to the spot.

Right in front of his very eyes was Dean. Sam shifted Sophie to his side and slowly walked over to his brother. The minute he set her down, Dean suddenly tackled Sam to the ground and splashed holy water and bleach all over him, before taking a knife to his arm as Sam tried to tell him he wasn't a demon, leviathan, or a shifter.

Sophie thought her father was being attacked and started crying, trying to push Dean off. When Dean stood up, Sam quickly got up onto his legs and pulled Sophie into his arms.

"It's okay, Sophie. I'm okay, I promise. Uncle Dean wasn't trying to hurt me," he assured his daughter.

Sophie looked up at her father when he called the mean man, Uncle Dean and looked over at Dean. She looked down at the shirt in her left arm then back at her uncle. "Uncle Dean?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah, that's Uncle Dean I told you about. You want to go say hi?" Sam smiled at her.

Sophie pushed away from her father to face her uncle, standing there for a minute.

"Sam, what the…" Dean began until Sam hushed him, quietly.

"Stay perfectly still and let Sophie come to you"

Dean stood there, a confused look on his face, looking like he wasn't expecting to be an uncle. Eventually, Sophie slowly walked over to him. When she was closed enough, she was able to recognize Dean's scent from his shirts and held her arms up to him. Dean looked over at his brother, who was close to crying. Till this day, Sam had been the only person Sophie wanted to hug when she first met them. Frankly, this was defiantly the best day of Sam's life.

Sam noticed Dean was looking at him as if to ask what he should do. "She wants you to pick her up," he told him, sniffing back the tears that were starting to fall.

Dean looked down at his niece again and tossed the bottles onto the ground to the side of him. He then bent over to lift Sophie up, into his arms, holding her on his left side. Sophie latched onto his neck and plainly told him, "No hurt Daddy."

Dean was at a loss for words. "I'm sorry…I wasn't meaning to hurt him. I had to make sure it was really him."

Sophie didn't respond. She snuggled into his left shoulder, holding his shirt to her that she had in her arm. He noticed it too and looked over at Sam. "Is that my shirt?" he asked.

Sam nodded, "It calms her down during a meltdown and she sleeps with it."

"You give your kid my shirt to calm her down and sleep with?" he questioned his brother.

"That how she copes, Dean," Sam shrugged and led his brother over to their house where he tried to take Sophie from him to go lay her down for her nap. Sophie refused to let go of her uncle so Sam had Dean follow him into the bedroom to lay her down instead. When Dean tried to lay her down, Sophie still refused to let him go, crying for him.

"Uh, Sam, is this normal?" Dean asked, not sure what to do.

"No, Sophie has never done that with me," Sam shook his head. "Sophie, it's naptime, okay? You need to let Uncle Dean go so you can go to sleep."

Sophie clung tighter to her uncle as Sam tried again to pull her off.

Finally, Dean got firm and told his niece, "Do you want a spanking, Sophie?"

Sam quickly told his brother, "Dean, no. She doesn't understand what's going on."

Dean stared at him. "She's like, four, five, Sam. She should understand," he stated.

But Sam shook his head, "She has autism, Dean."

"What the hell?" Dean asked.

"Sophie can't think or learn like other children her age," he explained. Sam looked down and sighed, "In fact, maybe if we wait long enough, she'll fall asleep and you can put her down then."

"And how long will that take?"

Sam shrugged, "Five, ten minutes. Shouldn't take that long. Usually she's out around this time anyway."

"So basically we can't hug until then," Dean shrugged.

Sam gave a small laugh, "You don't know how hard I've been fighting it too. I can't believe you're alive. What happened?"

Dean smiled at the ground before looking up at his brother, "Well, I guess standing next to exploding Dick sends your ass to Purgatory"

Sam cleared his throat, "Um, Dean. If you could refrain from cussing, that would be great. Sophie repeats what she hears, sometimes."

"O-kay." That probably was going to be the hardest thing Dean had ever done, keeping a cuss word from escaping his mouth.

"So you were in Purgatory," Sam asked, surprised where his brother had been the past year, "For the whole year?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, time flies when you're running for your life," he said, looking at the floor again before he felt something wet on his shoulder. "Sam."

"Hm?" he acknowledged his brother.

"Does she drool in her sleep?"

"Sometimes, she does. Why, is Sophie drooling?"

"Yeah and it's kind of disgusting," he said and allowed Sam to take her, who was then able to lie her down on the bed, this time.

Sam reached over to Sophie's side of the bed when they both sleep in it and grabbed the picture framed teddy bear that held the photo of Dean leaning on the Impala, and placed it in Sophie's arms who clung onto it in her sleep. He then gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Sleep tight, my precious angel," he told his daughter, softly and stood up to leave the room.

Dean walked beside him, "Precious angel?" he questioned his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes as he walked over to let Gary inside the house, who was whining to be let in. "It was the first thing to pop into my head," he replied.

"We'd seen and dealt with angels before and you want to call your kid, one?"

"Yeah, I know," Sam shrugged, "but I didn't know what else to call her. Besides, I was thinking of those _Precious Moments _angels you find in _Hallmark _stores. Not the real ones." Sam reached down and gently hit the dog's side as Gary growled at Dean. "Knock it off, Gary."

Gary stopped and took off for the bedroom to go lay with Sophie. "Gary is Sophie's watchdog. Where ever she goes, he follows to make sure she's safe."

Dean pointed back, behind him, "That dog better not have been in the car. Has he?"

Sam did not answer.

"He was, wasn't he?" he asked.

"Dean, you were gone and I was alone, and…"

"The rules are simple, Sam," Dean spat out and held out two fingers as he listed, "You don't take a joint from a man named Don, and there's no dogs in the car."

Sam looked away after raising his eye brows at him. "What about you?"

"What about me?" he demanded.

"Look at you, you still got that look. You're shaky," Sam shrugged. "You're suddenly on edge now. What was it like?"

Dean turned around and walked down the hall, towards the living room, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told ya."

"A lot of things happened to me over the past year I never thought would happen, so try me."

Dean was silent at first. "It was bloody, messy," he told him, looking at the floor. "Thirty-one flavors of bottom-dwelling nasties. Hell, most days felt like three hundred degree combat." He shook it off and turned back to face Sam. "Any way, how's Kevin doing?"

Sam shrugged, "I don't know. I haven't seen him in a year since the day you and Cas disappeared."

Dean stared at him, "You mean you didn't look for him?"

"No," he replied.

"Sam, that kid was our responsibility," Dean reminded him before he paused for a moment. "Did you even look for me?"

Sam looked away, unable to make eye contact with his brother.

Dean looked hurt to know his brother didn't even look for him. "No, that's good. We always told each other not to look for each other. That's smart, good for you. Dropped everything, took up parenthood to a retarded kid, and bought yourself a dog, living a nice apple pie life."

A wave of anger came over and Sam shoved Dean against the wall, "Don't ever call my daughter that," he told him, inches from his face.

"I'm not an expert on that stuff but isn't that what autism means?" Dean asked.

"The offensive meaning, yes and I don't ever want you saying that again, Dean, especially around her."

"You said she won't even understand," he shrugged.

"No, but she'll repeat it. Just don't say it. Okay?" Sam let go of his brother and the two of them just stood there. Before long, the brothers finally did what they had been dying to do. They wrapped each other into a tight embrace. The Winchester brothers were united once more.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry for the long time it took to update!**

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 12

Sam grabbed two beers out of the fridge and carried them into the living room where Dean had thrown himself down on the couch and placed his feet up on the coffee table, crossed at the ankles. Sam handed his brother one of them and twisted his off as he sat down on the other end.

The brothers filled each other in on what happened the past year, Dean held back on a lot of Purgatory but explained how Castiel didn't make it when he got out and Sam told him about what he had been doing and sure enough, Dean laughed when he heard where Sam's first job was.

Sam sipped on his beer, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I knew you would find that amusing," he said.

"Come on, you working at Wal-Mart with the vest on and everything?" Dean continued to laugh. "You can't tell me that isn't funny." He took a long swig of his own beer. "So how come you don't work there anymore?"

Sam placed his left foot on the corner edge of the coffee table, staring down at the floor. He explained to his brother back before the shirt-method was discovered, how Sophie would have complete meltdowns lasting for fifteen minutes, sometimes throughout the day until he came home when she was left with Mabel.

Dean held his beer to his lips, "I wouldn't have put up with all that," he muttered.

"Dean…" Sam looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Sophie doesn't understand how to control her emotions. She can't tell me when something is bothering her. She speaks in very short, incomplete phases, even with everything the clinic and myself are teaching her."

Dean didn't say anything as he took a swig of his beer. Sam leaned forward and pulled out the drawer on his side of the coffee table and took out a book on raising kids with Autism. He handed it to Dean.

Dean stared at it, "What's that for?"

"I know you don't like reading anything other than _Busty Asian Beauties_ magazines but this can help you a lot on how to understand how Sophie acts on a daily, even hourly basis." To Sam's surprise, Dean took it, setting his beer down which Sam quickly placed a coaster underneath it. "Helped me."

Dean skimmed through it.

Sam held his beer on his knee. There was a thought he couldn't help ignore and had to ask. "How'd you find me, anyway?"

Dean glanced up from the book at his brother. "I, uh, just finished a hunt with Garth. He told me where you were and why you weren't hunting anymore," he admitted.

He looked up at him at that point. "So you already knew about Sophie?"

"Yeah, I just couldn't believe there was another Winchester in the world," Dean looked at him, fully. "I couldn't believe that my little brother had a family of his own."

"Then why were you acting like a jerk before?"

He returned to skimming through the book, not saying a word.

"Dean," Sam tried to get through to his brother. Of course, trying to get Dean to talk about his feelings was like trying to catch an elephant with a butterfly net.

"I also already found Kevin," Dean finally said. He looked up from the book and explained about the tablet and about closing the gates of hell forever, that Kevin was working on that at the moment. Once Sam was all caught up, he stated he should probably get moving.

Sam stared at his brother surprised Dean wanted to leave so soon. "Don't you want to stay tonight and at least leave in the morning? You look tired, Dean. Stay."

Dean stared at the floor as he sat on the edge of the couch. "I got to keep moving," he finally shrugged, looking over at Sam. "People to save, you know?"

At that moment, Sophie walked in, rubbing her left eye and wandered over to her father, leaning on his right leg. "Hungry, pwease," she stated.

Sam lowered his foot and set his beer down on a coaster, on the coffee table, gently pulling his daughter towards him. "You're hungry, huh?" he smiled at Sophie and rubbed his nose against hers.

She giggled, nodding as she held her uncle's shirt in her hand where it dragged on the ground.

Dean wasn't comfortable with his shirt handled that way either. "Where do you keep all my clothes anyway? I'd like to have them back if you don't mind," he told Sam.

Sam looked back at his brother and looked back at his daughter. "Right, uh, they are yours after all." He looked at Dean again, "But do you think Sophie could keep at least one? I mean you have so many anyway."

Dean stared at his brother like he was crazy but then he saw Sophie climb up, onto the couch and into his lap, curling up with his shirt in her arms. Since he laid eyes on his niece, she was knocking down his wall, more and more and melting his heart. Sophie really was cute to him. Dean didn't feel right taking away something she felt comfortable with.

"Does she have two favorites of my shirts she really likes?" he looked over at Sam, who had been watching the two of them.

Sam had his forearms on his legs. "She does actually," he replied.

"Then she can keep them," Dean nodded.

Sam raised his eyebrows at that. "Really?"

Dean nodded again. "Yeah," was he said before there was a knock on the front door. Gary bounded from where he was laying on the wooden floor, barking happily, knowing exactly who it was. Sam stood up to go answer it.

"Hey, Sam," Clint greeted him, cheerfully. "Ready to go?"

Sam smacked his hand to his forehead, almost forgetting the two of them had to go get more sawdust for the horses' stalls, "Crap, I almost forgot." An idea clicked into his head with a feeling that it may work, for some reason. "Can you give me like, five minutes, Clint?"

"Sure, Sam. I'll meet you at the truck," he replied.

"Thanks," Sam nodded.

"No problem, Sam." Clint turned around and headed back down the steps, towards his truck as Sam shut the screen door and headed back into the living room.

"Dean, how would you feel about babysitting and getting to know your niece for an hour or two?" he asked of his brother.

Dean had taken a swig of his beer when Sam asked that question, making him choke on it. Dean coughed, trying to clear his airways, pushing Sophie off of his lap. "What?" he managed to muster out.

"My boss and I have to go pick up more sawdust for the horses and Sophie is always a handful because there's not really much for her to do there. Plus, I figured she would love to stay here and play with her uncle," Sam explained as he shrugged.

Dean stood up, slowly, watching his brother, carefully. "You told me Sophie has meltdowns when you leave her," he pointed out.

"But it might be different with you, Dean since she likes you. Wait a minute." Sam squatted down to Sophie's level and called her over to him. Sophie walked over to her father. He held her waist as he spoke, "Sophie, I have to go run an errand with Uncle Clint. Do you think you can stay home and play with Uncle Dean?"

"Daddy go?" she asked, confused.

"I'll be right back, though. Uncle Clint and I have to get something for the horses but you can show Uncle Dean your toys, and I bet he'll even watch cartoons with you. You love Uncle Dean, don't you?"

"Uncle Dean no go?"

Sam nodded, "Uncle Dean will stay here with you and I will be right back. Okay? Uncle Dean will give you your snack too but I have to go." He hugged his daughter, kissing the side of her forehead before standing up to leave.

Sophie started to cry and tried to stop her father from leaving. "Daddy no go," she told him, holding onto his jeans.

"I have to, Sophie. I have to go help Uncle Clint. I promise I will be right back." Sam took ahold of her hands to remove them and started for the door again. She just ran after him.

"Daddy no go! Daddy no go!" she was screaming now and clutched his right leg, tightly.

Sam looked over at his brother. "Dean, can you come hold her? That's how I leave her with my friends," he told him.

"Are you sure?" Dean asked. "Maybe you shouldn't…"

"Dean, I am positive," Sam replied. "Just come hold her. All she's thinking about is me leaving, not anything else. It'll work, trust me."

Dean walked over and tried to pry Sophie off his brother's leg. "Hey, hey. Come on, dude," he told his niece. "Your dad's gotta go to work."

Sam unhooked Sophie's arms from around his leg where Dean could grab her better and lift her up, onto his left side. Once Sophie was in Dean's arms, Sam was able to head out the door, remembering at the last moment, "Sophie may need to be changed but you can handle that, right?"

Dean's eyes widen, "Changed?"

"I'm still working on, teaching her how to the bathroom but she's having trouble grasping the concept but I got her into pull-ups instead of diapers. See you later, Sophie." Sam kissed his daughter one last time before hurrying out the door.

Sophie watched her father leave but was just fine, being in her uncle's arms. Dean was in shock for a minute before he looked at his niece. "Please tell me you are dry," he told her.

Sophie just stared at her uncle.

"You're not, are you?" he shook his head.

She continued to stare at him.

Dean carried her into the bedroom and set her down on her feet to check if she needed to be changed. Sure enough, Sophie did. He stood up and went over to where Sam kept the box of pull-ups and the wipes, regretting every moment of having to change his niece. Leading her into the bathroom, he sat down on the edge of the tub and proceeded to change her soiled pull-up, throwing it into the trashcan and flushing the used wipes down the toilet and washed his hands in the sink.

"Still hungry, kid?" he asked her, shaking the water off his hands before drying them on a towel that was hanging on the towel rack behind him.

Sophie started bouncing up and down, chanting, "Hungry, hungry."

"Okay, I get it. You're hungry." Once Dean had dried his hands, the two of them left the bathroom and headed into the kitchen where he looked through the fridge. "Can you tell me what you want or do I have to guess?"

Sophie was looking in the fridge, in front of him. She saw a container of small carrots in one of the drawers and pointed to it.

Dean opened the drawer and took the container out. "You want carrots?" he asked.

"Car-wits," she repeated.

"All righty then," he said and shut the drawer and the fridge and took the container over to set it on the table as he took off the lid. Sophie climbed up, onto a chair, sitting on her legs, and grabbed a carrot to munch on. Dean tried to take one but Sophie pulled the container away from him. "What, I can't have a carrot?"

"Uncle Dean no ass," she told him, staring up at him.

"What?" Dean couldn't believe what his niece just told him.

"Uncle Dean ass firt, not take," Sophie replied.

"Ask? You want me to ask first?" Dean said, hopeful she wasn't really meaning ass.

Sophie nodded.

Dean let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, can I please have a carrot?"

Sophie nodded again and pushed the container back. "Only wittle bit. Sophie no eat all," she explained.

Dean sat down in the chair next to her, "Your dad tell you that?"

She nodded a third time and took another carrot even though she wasn't done with the first. Gary was sitting on his haunches on Sophie's other side, waiting for the little girl to give him one, panting happily.

Dean noticed. "You, get," he ordered the dog.

"Uncle Dean no mean to Gary," Sophie shook her head at her uncle.

"Well, Gary needs to quit begging for food," said Dean, looking at the dog.

Sophie put her half-eaten carrots on the table and climbed off the chair to walk over to one of the lower cupboards Sam kept the dog food in. Gary followed and watched as the little girl took a dog biscuit from its bag and turned to face the dog. "Sit," she told the dog, pointing at the ground.

Gary sat back on his haunches again.

Sophie held her right hand out as she said, "Paw."

Gary lifted his front, left paw up and placed it in her hand.

"Good boy," Sophie praised and gave Gary the biscuit.

Gary took it over to his food bowl and started munching on the treat while Sophie returned to the table, climbing back up on the chair to stand on her legs. Dean had been watching the whole thing and was greatly impressed.

"I think you are way smarter than what your dad gives you credit for, kid," he told her.

Sophie was sucking on one of the carrots now instead of eating it, saliva and carrot bits sliding down her chin, not paying her uncle any attention. She had gone into her own, little world again.

Dean tried getting his niece's attention but she wouldn't answer him. He knew she wasn't deaf because she answered him and Sam before. Finally, he reached over and tried tickling her side, pulling his hand back for a second before continuing.

Finally, Sophie looked up at her uncle, staring at him.

"That carrot's gotta be mush by now. How about eating it?" he asked.

Sophie continued to stare at him before eating the rest of the carrot, reaching her now wet hand into the container to fish out another one.

"Why don't you finish eating that one before taking a new one?" Dean suggested, nodding at the other half-eaten carrot she had left on the table. Sophie started sucking on the new carrot instead.

Dean watched her, grossed out. "And your dad used to tell me, I was disgusting to watch eat something. I think you have me beat."

They sat there for half an hour before Dean couldn't watch anymore and placed the lid back on the container and returned it to the fridge.

"So," he said, rubbing his hands together, "What do you want to do now?"

"Spongebob! Spongebob!" she replied, excitedly.

"Spongebob? You don't want to watch that," Dean told her, with a smirk.

"Spongebob! Spongebob!" she continued.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Fine, we'll watch Spongebob." He then headed into the living room where he grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned on the TV, looking through the guide for _Spongebob Squarepants_. "Sorry, kiddo," he said after a while, "Spongebob's not on."

Sophie pointed up at where a stack of DVDs were, on top of the DVD player.

He stood up and walked over to look through the cases. "Of course she would have DVDs of it," Dean mumbled under his breath. He let Sophie choose which one she wanted to watch and placed the disc into the DVD player and grabbed the DVD remote as he headed over to sit on the end of the couch. Fast-forwarding through the previews, the main menu came up and Dean pressed play, placing both remotes on the arm of the couch, beside him.

Sophie climbed into her uncle's lap, with his shirt in hand and curled up to watch the cartoon. Dean watched his niece for the majority of the cartoon, thinking. He had to admit, the kid was growing on him. In fact, wrapping an arm around Sophie to keep her from falling, Dean leaned forward and picked up the book he had skimmed through and started actually reading it while Sophie watched _Spongebob Squarepants_.

When the second episode was over, Sophie wanted Dean to play with her. She climbed out of his lap and onto the back of the couch, to crawl behind his head and pounced on him.

"Oh, so it's that kind of play, huh?" Dean tossed the book back onto the coffee table and lifted her up, in his arms to pin her down on the couch to tickle her. Somehow, they ended up on the floor, behind the couch with Sophie climbing all over her uncle, squealing and laughing out loud. Dean would try to get up, onto his hands and knees to sit back but Sophie would then jump on his back. "You got me again," he laughed, looking back at her.

Gary tried joining in the fun, circling around the uncle and niece, barking and sticking his furry butt up in the air. The three of them had a blast. That is, until Sophie slipped and fell face-first into the hard, wooden floor. She cried out from the pain as Gary approached her, whining for her. The dog licked her face, trying to comfort her until Dean sat flat and pulled Sophie close to him.

"Let me see, Sophie," he told her, lifting her chin up to examine what she had hit. There was a little blood coming from her nose but it didn't seem like it was broken. Dean had been through too many injuries to know what a broken nose looked like. He picked her up and carried Sophie into the kitchen, setting her on the counter next to the sink, where he tore off a couple sheets of paper towels and wet it under the faucet. With the wet paper towels, Dean wiped up the blood and quickly grabbed a fresh one to hold on her nose, waiting for it to stop.

Of course, Sam had to come home at that point. "Come on, Sophie," he called, coming down the front hallway. "Aunt Dorothy has dinner ready." Sam searched the house, ending up in the kitchen. His eyes widened when he saw Dean holding the paper towel on her nose as he comforted her, quieting Sophie down. Sam rushed right over. "What happened?"

"We were playing and Sophie fell, face-first into the floor, it's no big deal, Sam. She's fine," Dean assured his brother.

"No big deal?" Sam questioned him. "How exactly were you playing, Dean?"

"I was letting her climb on me, you know, like the way Dad let us climb on him those rare times as kids."

"Dean, she's not a boy, she's a girl. You have to be careful with her."

"We were having fun, Sam. Sophie was having fun," Dean argued with his brother. "She was laughing and enjoying herself. Kids get hurt, that's normal."

Sam just shook his head and shoved his brother out of the way to take over, focusing on his daughter. "Hey, you okay, Sophie?" he asked her, holding the paper towel now. Sam removed it to see how much blood she had lost and checked up her nose to see if it had stopped yet. It seemed like it was, so Sam tore off another paper towel and wet it under the faucet so he could clean her nose, this time.

Dean offered to throw all the paper towels away while Sam lifted Sophie into his arms. He checked to see if Sophie needed to be changed again, which surprisingly she was dry and asked Dean if he wanted to come with them for dinner.

"Nah, I think I'll stay," he declined. "You go. They're your friends."

Sam asked, "You sure? They said you're welcome to join us. It's fried chicken night."

"No, it's fine. I rather not," Dean said.

"Okay, well, there's TV dinners, a couple frozen pizzas, and chicken nuggets in the freezer. There's stuff to make a sandwich, cereal's in the pantry, and uh, plenty of mac and cheese and soup, too."

Dean shrugged, "Thanks."

"Uh, sure, no problem." Sam headed for the door, calling for Gary and left again.

Dean looked around the kitchen to decide on what to eat, which he just decided to make a sandwich and flopped down on the couch to watch TV.


	13. Chapter 13

**I know it's been a long time and all but finally, here it is: the continuation of Sophie!**

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 13

The next morning, Sam woke up to the sound of Sophie coughing hoarsely. He sat up, leaning on his left elbow and felt her forehead. Sophie was very warm to his touch and Sam panicked. He jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to grab the ear thermometer from the medicine cabinet, taking it back over to her. He lifted his daughter into a sitting position and placed the ear thermometer into her left ear and waited for it to beep.

Sophie didn't enjoy having something inside her ear and tried to shove it away.

"I have to get your temperature, angel," he assured her, softly. But Sophie wouldn't stop and squirmed around, getting where her father couldn't hold the thermometer in her ear anymore and had to go wake Dean for help.

"Dean," Sam said as he shook his brother's upper, left arm, standing behind the couch. "Dean."

Dean groaned in his sleep. "What?" he asked, irritably.

"I need your help taking Sophie's temperature," Sam told him.

"Why, what's wrong with her?"

"She feels hot and she woke up with a hoarse cough."

Dean slowly sat up, opening his eyes and tried to wake himself up. "What do you want me to do?" he asked his younger brother, groggily.

"I'm gonna hold her down and I need you to hold the thermometer inside her ear until it beeps," Sam explained.

"Oh, good, it's that kind of thermometer," Dean said, relieved.

Sam gave his brother a quizzical look. "What kind of thermometer did you think I used?"

Dean looked back, over his left shoulder where Sam was standing behind the couch.

Sam realized what he meant. "Oh," he realized and shook his head. "No, Sophie's too old for that kind. I bought the one that goes inside the ear since I thought it would be easiest to use with her."

Dean stood up, stretching out his arms and back. "Okay, let's get this over with," he said and followed Sam into the bedroom where Sophie was lying down again, not looking so good. She looked a little pale and tired.

Sam handed Dean the ear thermometer and reached down to lift his daughter up into his arms before sitting on the edge of the bed. He positioned Sophie on his lap, facing Dean where he could wrap his arms around her, firmly which Sophie did not like either and already started squirming. Sam held on though as Dean kneeled down to his niece's level and brushed back her hair from where it covered her left ear, holding it in place. Dean then stuck the ear piece of the thermometer inside Sophie's ear canal after turning it on, to wait for it to beep.

Sophie hated it even more when she felt the ear thermometer in her ear again and continued to squirm in her father's arms who held her in place. Even being sick, Sophie still had a little energy to fight them.

"It's okay, Sophie," Sam tried to assure his daughter again. "We're just trying to check your temperature. It'll be over soon."

The waterworks had suddenly turned on as she tried to maneuver her head away from her uncle, having to rest it against her father. Dean tried gently to hold her head still so it could finish.

"You're okay, Sophie," Dean assured her too. "It'll be over soon." He started rubbing the side of her forehead with his thumb until finally the thermometer beeped and removed it to look at the screen.

"What does it say?" Sam asked, anxiously.

"102.4," he read and held it towards Sam to show him.

Sam sighed, worried about his little girl.

"I'm sure it's just a minor case of the flu," Dean shrugged, trying to make his brother feel better. "Do you work today?"

"Yeah, but my boss will give me the day off though," Sam said. "You mind grabbing the bottle of children's medicine from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom for me?" He nodded towards the bathroom.

Dean turned around and wandered over to the bathroom, looking inside the medicine cabinet. He set the ear thermometer on the middle shelf and looked around for the children's medicine, finding the one for the flu. Grabbing it, he took it over to his brother.

Sam thanked him as he took it and removed the cup from the top and unscrewed the lid.

"You know what," Dean said as he watched Sam give Sophie the recommended dose for her age group, "you don't have to take off work. I can stay here and watch her for you."

Sam glanced at his brother, his eyebrows raised as he tried to get Sophie to finish drinking the medicine. "You want to watch Sophie again?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah," he smiled, nodding once. "I want to spend more time with my niece before I have to leave."

"What about Crowley, and Kevin, and the tablet?"

"Kevin's well hidden. Come on, Sam, please? You work right outside your house. I can call you if she gets any worse."

Sam couldn't help snicker at his brother.

Dean glared at him, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just, I never thought I'd see you beg for something like this," he told him with a smile.

"Dude, you're lucky you're holding your daughter or I would be slugging you right now," Dean threatened.

Sam smirked at that and looked down at his daughter. "How about it, Sophie?" he asked her. "Would you like to spend the whole day with Uncle Dean while I go take care of the horses?"

Sophie did not respond, she held her head, tiredly against the front of his torso. Sam could feel her shivering in his arms and felt heartbroken knowing his daughter was feeling this way. He laid her back down on the bed to change her before covering Sophie up with the comforter.

"Dean, you mind toasting a piece of bread in the toaster for me and there should be grape juice in the fridge," Sam said as he tucked his daughter back into bed.

"No problem, Sammy," Dean replied and left the room.

Sam leaned over and gently brushed her hair back from her forehead. Sophie snuggled into a ball, under the comforter, still shivering all over. "It'll be okay, Sophie. Uncle Dean will take good care of you," he assured her. "He used to take care of me when I got sick as a kid. I bet Uncle Dean will make you soup for lunch and will cuddle on the couch with you to watch Spongebob, and help you feel all better. Does that sound good?"

"Daddy go?" she asked, wearily.

"Just right outside to where the horses are but Uncle Dean will be here, I promise. You love Uncle Dean, right?"

Sophie stared back at her father from the comforter. "Sophie loves Uncle Dean," she repeated.

Sam smiled, "That's great to hear."

"Uncle Dean love Sophie?" Sophie asked.

"You bet I do." Dean had returned at that moment with the toast, grinning. Sophie looked over at him as Dean walked to the bed, carrying the toast on a paper towel and handed it to Sam. Sam took it and asked Sophie if she could sit up. Sophie didn't move. Dean sat down next to her head and reached out to take the toast back. "You should get ready for work, Sam. I'll feed her for you."

Sam asked, "You sure?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I got this."

Sam smiled over at his brother, thankful to have him back before looking over at his daughter. He leaned forward, on his right knee and kissed Sophie on the side of the forehead. Standing up, Sam grabbed his clothes from the closet and dresser, and went inside the bathroom to get dressed, leaving Dean and Sophie alone.

Dean placed the toast on the nightstand and propped up his brother's pillow before scooting back to lean against it. He then lifted his niece in his lap, pulling the comforter over them so Sophie could keep warm and picked up the piece of toast and held it up to her mouth.

"Can you eat for me, Sophie?" he asked her as Sophie snuggled against his chest. She stared into space, not saying a word. "You need to eat something so you can feel better. Don't you want to feel better?"

Sophie just continued to stare into space.

Dean gently pushed the bread against her lips, trying to get Sophie to open her mouth. "Come on, Sophie, you need to eat something." He got stern a little but remained patient and calm as Dean continued to make her eat. Dean rubbed her upper, right arm.

After fifteen minutes, Sam came out of the bathroom, dressed in jeans and one of his striped, collared shirts, rolling up the sleeves. "Has she eaten at all yet?" he asked Dean.

Dean looked up at his brother. "No and I've been trying."

"She is sick to turn down food," Sam said. "She has your appetite. Did she drink anything yet?"

"Crap," Dean realized. "No, I forgot about the juice."

"I got it." Sam left the room and headed into the kitchen. He grabbed one of Sophie's _Backyardians _cups, with the pink character on it, and a light green lid and blue rubber straw from the upper cupboard by the fridge and the grape juice carton from inside the fridge, pouring some inside the cup.

He heard his cell phone ring faintly from his bedroom and Dean calling for him. Sam returned the juice to the fridge and screwed the lid back on the cup, taking it with him. Inside the bedroom, Sam grabbed his phone up from the nightstand as he handed Dean the cup of juice. He unplugged it and saw it was the center where he takes Sophie for her therapy.

"This is Sam," he answered the phone and listened. "Crap. Probably not today, Sophie woke up with a fever this morning. I'm thinking the flu." Sam paused again for a few seconds. "Hopefully a day or two, I don't know….Right, yeah. I will give you a call in the morning if she's feeling better….okay….okay. Yeah, not a problem…bye."

It wasn't a chore to get Sophie to drink the juice like it was to eat, which she still hasn't taken one bite yet. "Who was it?" Dean asked, curious as Sam hung up.

"The center where I take Sophie for therapy," he replied, stuffing his phone in his back pocket and went over to his closet to grab a jacket.

Dean watched his brother, confused. "Therapy? What does she need therapy for?" he asked.

"They helped diagnose her autism and help me teach and understand Sophie better, as well as teach her how to understand me or anyone else she comes into contact with."

"Does it work?"

"I wouldn't keep bringing her back if it didn't," Sam shrugged and spotted the uneaten toast sitting on the nightstand. "She's still not eating?"

"No, but she's drinking," Dean said.

"Don't let her drink a lot before she eats or Sophie really won't eat. She gets full faster if she drinks a lot of liquids," he explained.

"She won't eat anyway, what's the difference?" Dean smirked.

Sam leaned on his right knee, brushing some of Sophie's hair behind her right ear, "Sophie, I know you're sick but you have to eat for me, okay? At least eat some."

Dean had picked up the toast again, after setting her juice down and tried again. "Come on, Sophie," he told his niece, holding the toast to her lips.

"Would you like some oatmeal instead?" Sam suggested to her, brushing her hair back with his hand. "You can have some oatmeal."

"Oatmeal," Sophie finally uttered, quietly right above a whisper.

"Okay, I will make you some oatmeal," he said and returned to the kitchen to fix Sophie a bowl. It took a few minutes but when it was ready, Sam took it back to the bedroom, mixing the oatmeal around with the spoon and sat down on the bed as Dean moved his legs so his brother could sit. "Sophie," Sam tried to get his daughter's attention. Dean snapped her out of her world and nodded over to her father.

Sophie looked over at her father as he brought a spoonful of oatmeal towards her mouth. She opened it and took the bite. After the third bite, Dean took the bowl and told Sam to go eat his own breakfast so he could leave. Sam stood up and left the room once more, letting Dean take over again.

Dean held the small bowl in the hand he had wrapped around Sophie and held the spoon in his left hand, feeding the oatmeal to her. In between a few bites, he would let Sophie take a drink of her juice before continuing with her breakfast. After Sophie took another bite, Dean kissed the top of her head, surprising himself but never regretted it especially when Sophie didn't say or do anything about it. The kid was definitely growing on Dean and made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It almost made him not want to leave but knew he had to eventually. He figured he would stay until at least Sophie was feeling better and spend more time bonding with his niece.

Once the oatmeal was gone, Dean asked her, "Want to go curl up on the couch with me and watch cartoons?"

"Spongebob," she told her uncle.

"Oh, come on. Can't we watch something other than Spongebob?" he grinned.

She said the _Backyardians_ but mispronounced it and Dean had no clue what Sophie was trying to tell him. Luckily, Sam had come back in at that moment to kiss her good-bye and overheard them talking.

"She's saying the _Backyardians_," Sam told his brother, "Her other favorite show."

"What the hell is the _Backyardians_?" Dean asked.

"Dean, language, remember?" he reminded him. "They're animals who are supposed to be kids and they go on these adventures right in their own backyard, hence the name of the show. It encourages kids to use their imaginations. Not sure when it comes on but we have couple DVDs of it on top of the TV." Sam leaned on his knuckles and kissed his daughter on the forehead. "I'll be back at lunchtime, okay, Sophie?"

Sophie looked up at Sam with her sad, puppy dog eyes she inherited from him. "Daddy no go," she whined softly.

"I have to, angel. I will be right outside in the stables. Okay? I won't be far away, I promise," he assured her and kissed Sophie's forehead again. Standing up, he started going over everything to Dean about taking care of Sophie."

Dean interrupted his brother, "Sam, I got it. I promise everything will be fine. I actually stayed up late, last night reading that book of yours."

Sam looked at Dean, impressed, "Seriously?"

"Yeah, learned a lot of interesting things and I'm probably gonna read more while Sophie's watching cartoons." Dean didn't know just how happy that made Sam. Not only was it an actual book Dean read on his own free will, it was tailored to understanding his niece and Sam thought that was the most amazing thing.

"Well, all right. Guess I don't have to worry then," Sam said.

Dean stood up, lifting his niece to his side. He didn't catch Sophie reaching for her teddy bear but Sam did and grabbed it for her, giving it to Sophie, kissing her one last time. Dean walked Sam out and watched him walk towards the stables through the screen door where Gary had joined him. Gary had decided he wanted to sleep in the stables last night.

When Sam was gone, Dean turned and headed towards the couch, shutting the front door with his foot. "Ready for some awesome cartoons?" he asked his niece.


	14. Chapter 14

**Daddy's Precious Angel**

Chapter 14

For an hour, Dean cuddled on the couch with his niece, watching cartoons. Sophie cocooned herself underneath the blanket, and now and then would pull on it, making it slide off Dean. When he would try to pull some of it back, Sophie would get upset and pull it back.

"Hey, I want to be warm too, you know," he told her, teasingly but Sophie did not look back at him and instead, kept pulling on it. Eventually, Sophie got some strength back to stand up on her own and walk over to the far corner of the living room where her toys were, placed neatly on small shelves with a kids' rug. Dean pushed himself up into a sitting position to look over the back of the couch as she pulled down her Barbie collection, dropping them on the floor.

Turning off the TV, Dean decided to wander over and sit himself across from his niece. "Can I play?" he asked.

Sophie did not respond as she held one of her dolls in her hands, fixated on her face.

Dean reached for one dressed like a cowgirl and stood it up and began speaking the best cliché Western accent he could do. "Howdy, Barbie. Should we wander over to the mall and see if we can't find us some new shoes?"

Sophie did not look up. She wasn't even aware her uncle had sat down as she sat there on her legs, turning the head around several times.

Dean watched her for a minute. "Doing an _Exorcist_ reenactment there?" he smiled, teasingly.

She picked up another doll and tossed the other away. Sophie then started to peel away the dolls clothes, dropping them on the floor. Once the doll was naked, she discarded that one and moved on to the next, doing the same as well as a third doll.

"Yeah, clothes are so overrated these days," Dean tried to continue to talk to his niece.

When all the dolls, including the first doll Sophie had, had their clothes taken she reached over and took the one her uncle was holding, getting upset the doll's clothes wouldn't come off easily like the others. Dean tried to reach over to help but Sophie yanked it out of his reach and tried again, coughing hoarsely.

"I just wanted to help."

Sophie didn't look up as she continued to yank on the doll's pants until she threw it across the play rug and stood up to grab another toy from the shelf. Getting a bit lightheaded from standing up so fast, Sophie stumbled and fell backwards. Luckily, Dean was quick enough to catch her before she hit her head on the floor.

"You sure you don't want to lay down, Sophie?" he suggested to his niece. "You shouldn't be up walking around right now."

She pushed away from her uncle and tried to stand up again but got lightheaded once more. Dean stood up and lifted his niece up into his arms to carry her back over to the cough which Sophie began to cry out and tried to squirm out of his arms, kicking her legs.

"Sophie, honey, you're sick," Dean tried to explain to her, "you should be lying down, resting."

But Sophie continued to cry out, her wails getting louder and before he knew it, Dean was experiencing one of his niece's typical meltdowns for the first time.

"Crap, what did that book say about meltdowns?" Dean asked himself under his breath.

Sophie squirmed and cried as he tried to hold her in place to carry her over to the couch. Her cries grew louder with each passing second, every few kicks connecting with his legs. A couple times, a kick barely missed his private area.

"Sophie, that's enough," Dean scolded, calmly but firm and managed to sit down on the edge of the couch and set her down on his lap to hold her in his arms. Sophie tried to slide down from his lap and break loose from her uncle's grip. Tears were pouring down her face as she fought as best as she could.

When Sophie had started sliding from his leg, Dean had to shift his niece in his arms which Sophie almost fell as she continued to kick and squirm. Sophie managed to get her arms free when he was placing her back on his leg and started hitting his arms with her fists, pushing on them.

"Settle down, Sophie," Dean tried to tell her but Sophie would not listen. Her mind was elsewhere now and Dean tried his best to not lose his temper. Sophie pushed on his right knee with her foot, trying to push herself upward. Dean wrapped his left arm around her waist and pushed the coffee table forward to slide down onto the floor to sit cross-legged so he could use his legs to pin Sophie's and hold her arms in his.

Sophie's wails grew even louder with a hoarse cough every fifteen seconds. Dean almost expected Sam to hear them with how loud she was. After a couple minutes of holding her down, Dean started humming one of his favorite songs to his niece, softly as Sophie tried to lift herself out of his lap. Humming for a few minutes and kissing the top of her head too, Sophie's cries quieted down to sniffles.

"That's it, Sophie," Dean assured her, "everything's okay, I promise." He slowly released his grip as Sophie sunk into his chest. "How about a bath?" he suggested when she was calm. "That should help with your fever."

Dean stood up, carefully lifting his niece onto his right side and carried her into the bathroom. He ran a warm bath, making sure it wasn't too hot and removed her pajamas and soiled pull-up, cleaning Sophie off before lifting her into the bathtub and had her sit down.

He washed her hair and body first before he let her play with her bath toys. Sophie laughed as they squirted each other with rubber ducks as Dean sat on the tiled floor beside the bathtub. Her laugher and the fun uncle and niece had made him laugh too.

Sophie lifted her toy boat out of the water and made a big splash as water splashed out of the bathtub onto the floor and Dean.

Dean picked up the toy rubber shark that was floating and swam it through the water, having it jump out the water towards her, "Oh no, here comes the shark. It's coming to get you."

Sophie stared at the shark, emotionless until her uncle used it to tickle her stomach which she then giggled and took the shark from him to stick it in his face.

"Oh no, is the shark gonna get me?" Dean laughed at it as she just held it there, standing up onto her knees. Sophie giggled and squeezed the shark to make it squeak loudly several times until it got on his nerves. "Okay, that's enough with the squeaking shark." Dean placed his hand on hers and lowered the shark from his face before standing up and grabbing the _Spongebob Squarepants _towel from the towel rack. "Stand up for me, Sophie," he told her, holding the towel out in front of him.

Sophie stood up from the water and allowed her uncle to wrap the towel around her body to lift her out of the bathtub. He set Sophie down on the rug and sat on the toilet lid to dry her off before carrying her out to the bedroom, grabbing a pull-up before sitting down on the foot of the bed and set her on her feet. Sophie held onto her uncle as he slid it on.

Dean stood up and started going through each drawer until he found Sophie's and took out a pair of _Backyardigans _pajamas, bringing them back over to the bed and helped her dress.

Thinking she was going to bed from the fresh pair of pajamas, Sophie went over to the bookshelf on the other side of the room, under the window and picked out a book. Since Easter last year, Sam had expanded the library of children's books to read to his daughter and made it a habit to read to her every night when they went to bed. However, now every time Sophie got dressed in pajamas no matter what time of day it was, she believed it was bedtime.

Sophie pulled off _If You Gave a Mouse a Cookie_ and took it over to her uncle and held it out to him, staring up with her puppy dog eyes.

Dean took the book, "You want me to read this to you?" he asked.

Sophie just stared at her uncle. He smiled and gave in, holding his arms out for her to climb onto his lap and laid her head against Dean's chest. Once she was comfortable, Dean opened the book and opened to the first page.

"If you gave a mouse a cookie," Dean began to read before he turned the page, "He's going to ask for a glass of milk." He turned the page, "When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw."

Dean read through the entire book. Soon, Sophie's eyes grew heavy and though she fought it so she could hear the end, even though Sam had read her the book a million times and that wasn't exactly an exaggeration either. It was one of her favorites. She fell asleep by the time Dean got to the end. Setting the book beside him on the floor, Dean lied back with his niece and curled up with her before he too fell asleep.

Sam and Clint walked inside the front door. Sam looked around the quiet house as Clint shut the door behind them before they noticed the sound of snoring coming from the bedroom. Sam poked his head in and walked over, cautiously as to not disturb Dean or Sophie to check on his daughter.

Leaving the room, he walked over to the coffee table and sat down on the edge of the cough.

"So that's the famous brother I've heard so much about," Clint grinned at Sam, following him and stood beside the coffee table.

Sam went inside the left hand side of the coffee table to dig around the important stuff drawer. He smiled, "Yeah, that's him."

"Must be great to know he's alive, huh?" he said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed, "and it's amazing to see how much Sophie has already warmed up to him."

He shrugged, "Thanks to your brother's shirts, Sophie sort of already known him from his scent."

"Only problem is, Dean is gonna be leaving again and I don't know how Sophie will react to that." Sam finally found what he was looking for and stood up after closing the drawer. He handed a check to Clint. "Here's the money I owe you. Thanks again." Sam removed his jacket and tossed it onto the back of the couch.

Clint had taken the check from Sam and took his wallet from his back pocket to slide it inside, replacing it back into his pocket, "No problem, Sam." They kept their voices down but Sophie still woke up and wandered from the bedroom, into the living room.

Sam was the first to notice, "Hey, angel," he smiled. "Did Uncle Clint and I wake you?" Sophie wandered over to the men and held her arms out for her father to pick her up which Sam did. "Are you feeling better?" Sam held his hand to Sophie' forehead, she still felt warm to his touch and let her lay her head on his right shoulder. He rubbed her back up and down.

"She just woke up like that, this morning?" Clint asked, curious.

He nodded and shrugged. "Sophie was fine, last night but this morning I woke up to her coughing and I had to wake my brother to help me take her temperature."

Clint rubbed Sophie's back with the back of his fingers, "Poor kiddo," and pulled his hand back. "It'll last for, at least a couple days. It's flu season. Is she throwing up?"

"Not that I know of but I don't know what happened yet while I was out in the stables."

He nodded, "Yeah," agreeing. "Well, I have to go run a few errands. Just clean out the small arena where the ponies were, last weekend and call it a day. I can feed the horses by myself, tonight."

"Okay." Sam walked the older man out as Gary ran inside before he shut the door and turned to his daughter, "Are you hungry, Sophie?"

"Hungry," Sophie repeated.

Sam carried her into the kitchen and looked through the fridge first before switching to the cupboards. He saw a few cans of chicken noodle soup and grabbed one. "Want some soup? That'll help you feel better."

Sophie nodded.

He set the can on the cupboard and carried his daughter back into the living room, "Here, why don't you watch cartoons while I warm up the soup." Sam laid Sophie on the couch and picked up the remote, sitting on the edge of the couch. That was when he noticed the coffee table pushed back.

"Why is the table moved?" he asked himself, out loud. Pulling it back into place, Sam turned on the TV and looked through the guide, changing the channel to the _Sprouts _channel, setting the remote back on the coffee table. He stood up and grabbed the blanket from the floor, between the couch and coffee table, to cover Sophie with it. "Watch cartoons while the soup's cooking, okay," Sam told her and kissed her head.

Sam headed back to the kitchen and fixed the soup over the stove, stirring it constantly so it wouldn't burn. Once it was boiling, Sam poured it into two bowls and set them on the table. He carried Sophie to the table and pushed her chair in for her.

"Careful, it's a little hot still, okay?" he warned her.

Sophie blew on each spoonful before she ate it as her father went and grabbed her cup from the bedroom to refill it with grape juice, letting her have a sip before setting it next to his bowl and grabbed a napkin from the center of the table to wipe around Sophie's mouth. It usually wasn't long before she was wearing her food once Sophie began eating and Sam found himself using a lot of napkins during a meal like it was the paper towel commercial with the little boy eating chicken wings with a pile of used paper towels right next to his plate.

Finally, he was able to sit down and start eating himself. "So what did you do, this morning with Uncle Dean?" he asked Sophie.

"Cartoons," she replied, a tad bit over a normal speaking voice.

"Yeah, you guys watched cartoons?" Sam smiled, holding his spoon. "What else? Did Uncle Dean give you a bath?"

"Shark got Sophie," Sophie told her father.

Sam pretended to be surprised, "Oh no. Did Uncle Dean save you from the shark?"

"Uncle Dean was shark."

"Oh, he was, huh? Were you the little fish?"

Sophie shook her head, "Sophie not fish."

"Then what were you?"

"Sophie, Sophie."

Sam had to smile at that. "That's my favorite," he told her.

"Sophie Daddy's favorite?" she asked before taking another bite. Soup drizzled down her chin, making her father reach for a napkin and wipe it off.

"You will always be my favorite," he smiled at her as he cleaned Sophie's chin off.

Once the soup was pretty much gone, Sophie laid her head down on her arms as Sam took their bowls over to the sink and rinsed them under the water to wash later. An uncomfortable feeling hit Sophie's stomach which she stood up and slid down from the chair. It squeezed her stomach into a knot and suddenly everything she ate that day came rushing back up and exploded all over the floor. Sam quickly shut off the water and grabbed his daughter up to rush her to the bathroom, letting her finish in the toilet. He never thought he could move that fast. Sam kneeled beside Sophie as she continued to throw her guts up.

The sound of Sophie vomiting woke Dean from his sleep and wandered into the bathroom, leaning against the door frame. "Sophie okay? What happened?" he asked, still waking up.

Sam looked back over his shoulder, rubbing his daughter's back in circles. "She was fine until we finished lunch. I turn my back for a few seconds and the whole contents of her stomach are all over the floor," he explained.

Dean had turned his head from the bathroom, disgusted from the smell and switched on the bathroom fan vent. "That's some bug she caught," he inquired.

"Yeah," Sam agreed, turning back to Sophie who had finished. "She hadn't thrown up like this since she got dehydrated, last year. You mind getting me a cup of Pedialyte? It's in the fridge, towards the back."

Dean left the bathroom doorway. Sam reached over and flushed the toilet before tearing off some toilet paper and wiped Sophie's nose, tossing that into the toilet and tore off some more to wipe off her bare feet. Once Sophie was cleaned off, Sam removed her pajama pants since the first round had splashed onto them and had her step out of them.

"You need to go potty, Sophie?" he asked and checked her pull-up.

Sophie was leaning against her father, not saying a word.

"Can you try for Daddy?" Sam rubbed her back up and down.

Still no response.

Sam pulled her pull-up down and lifted her from his shoulder to lift her onto the toilet to wait a few minutes. It was usually a long wait too but Sam always remained patient.

Dean returned with the cup of Pedialyte, quickly backing out of the bathroom when he noticed his niece. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know the bathroom was occupied," he teased her, trying to make Sophie laugh and walked back in wearing a grin.

Sophie didn't laugh though. She just stared at the floor in her own world. Sam took the cup, thanking his brother and set it on the counter. Another few minutes and Sophie actually did go, filling Sam with joy. He held up his hand for a high five but Sophie just wanted to lay down so after cleaning her bottom, he lifted her off the toilet and pulled up her pull-up.

"Great job, Sophie," he praised, squeezing his daughter in a tight embrace. "You did it. You went potty in the potty."

Dean couldn't help snicker to himself, hearing those words come out of his brother's mouth. He hadn't heard them since Sam was Sophie's age but had to admit he was proud of his niece. "Was that the first time?" Dean asked, curious.

Sam flushed the toilet again and lifted Sophie onto her stool at the sink, turning on the water. "Yeah," he couldn't help glow, proudly. "But it's not over yet. Sophie still has a long way to go before she's completely potty-trained." Sam wet their hands and squirted hand soap into his right palm, lathering it into his hands before lathering onto Sophie's hands as well. Once he rinsed their hands, Sam turned off the water and dried their hands with a hand towel before lifting Sophie up to carry her over to the bed, laying her down. He then went over to grab a pair of sweatpants from Sophie's drawer of pants and took them over to slide them on her, covering her up.

Dean had grabbed the Pedialyte without his brother asking him this time, bringing it over. Sam held his left arm under his daughter's head to hold her up and had her drink. Sophie wanted to chug it down at once but Sam had her take it in, in sips so she wouldn't throw up again. When it was all gone, Sam laid her head back down, carefully and stood up.

"How was she, this morning?" he asked Dean as he headed out of the bedroom and over to the kitchen where he placed the now empty cup.

Dean rubbed the back of his head, "I experienced one of her meltdowns," he admitted.

Sam raised his eyebrows at that. "What happened?"

He shrugged, "She was playing with her dolls until she stood up and got lightheaded, I'm guessing and fell back into my lap. I told her she should be resting and took her back over to the couch to lie down and she got upset. I had to sit on the floor and pin her with my arms and legs until Sophie calmed down."

"I would think she would calm down with just you holding her since it is your shirt she calms down to." Sam was grabbing a towel from above the washer and took it over to drop it on the floor where the mess was to clean it up.

"I don't know," Dean said. "It only lasted ten minutes though."

Sam kneeled down to wipe the towel around, folding it to continue getting the rest up. "Aren't you lucky," he smirked.

"Lucky?"

"There's been times her meltdowns lasted a whole hour," he explained, "In public, once or twice too."

This time, Dean's eyebrows rose. "Wow," and stood there for a moment while Sam cleaned up the mess, taking it over to the washer to toss in, along with laundry detergent. "Could you imagine Dad raising someone like Sophie?"

Sam shut the lid, carefully and turned the dials before pulling the last one out to start the washer. "He barely raised us," he admitted. Sam hated having to put his father down, knowing John really did try his best and stared at the washer for a moment. "This past year hadn't been easy, Dean. I don't even know how I found this place."

"Well, you did and that's the only thing that matters," he shrugged.

Sam turned around and leaned against the washer, leaning on his hands. "Even after we found this place, Sophie warming up to everyone, her meltdowns, trying to be the best father I could be. She doesn't make any friends with any kids she comes into contact with."

"The book says kids with autism are anti-social," Dean pointed out.

Sam took a deep breath, "Yeah, I know. It's just…I hate watching my kid go through all of this. I want her to have friends her own age. I get so guilty when I feel frustrated with her when we're working on flashcards, and I know she tries because most of Sophie's meltdowns start when we get to a word she doesn't know or remember."

"It just takes time, Sammy. She'll get it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, or next week even. Someday she will. Sophie used the bathroom today for the first time," Dean pointed out. "Huh? That's something."

Sam stared at the floor, a smile flashing across his face. He couldn't help feel what all parents that was in his shoes feel. Sam hated having his daughter go through these trials just to be a kid.

"I'm back now too, so you have my back in all of this. Anything that happens, you can call me and I'll be here."

Sam looked up at his brother. "Thanks, Dean."

Dean smiled in return, "What are big brothers for?"

He smiled more at that, really glad to have his big brother back.


End file.
